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GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 



The Thirty Tears' War. 






II 



V 



CONTENTS. 



PAOB 

Book I 8 



85 



III 177 

IV 271 



319 



THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



THIRTY YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 



Tr e . -^ K e G 



.-\ e 



By FREDERICK SCHILLER. 



NEW YORK: 

A. L. BURT, PUBLISHEE. 



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PREFACE TO THE EDITION. 



The present is the best collected edition of the important 
works of Schiller which is accessible to readers in the 
English language. Detached poems or dramas have been 
translated at various times since the first publication of 
the original works ; and in several instances these versions 
have been incorporated into this collection. 

Schiller was not less efficiently qualified by nature for 
an historian than for a dramatist. He was formed to 
excel in all departments of literature, and the admirable 
lucidity of style and soundness and impartiality of judg- 
ment displayed in his historical writings will not easily 
be surpassed, and will always recommend them as popular 
expositions of the periods of which they treat. 

Since the publication of the first English edition many 
corrections and improvements have been made, with a 
view to rendering it as acceptable as possible to English 
readers ; and, notwithstanding the disadvantages of a 
translation, the publishers feel sure that Schiller will be 
heartily acceptable to English readers, and that the 
influence of his writings will continue to increase. 

The History of the Revolt of the Netherlands 
was translated by Lieut. E. B. Eastwick, and originally 
published abroad for students' use. But this translation 
was too strictly literal for general readers. It has been 
carefully revised, and some portions have been entirely 
rewritten by the Rev. A, J. W. Morrison, who also has so 
ably translated the History of the Thirty Years' 
Wab. 



IV PREFACE TO THE EDITIOJT. 

The Camp of Wallenstein was translated by Mr. 
James Churchill, and first appeared in " Frazer's Maga- 
zine." It is an exceedingly happy version of what has 
always been deemed the most untranslatable of Schiller's 
works. 

The Piccolomini and Death of Wallenstein are 
the admirable version of S. T. Coleridge, completed by the 
addition of all those passages which he has omitted, and 
by a restoration of Schiller's own arrangement of the acts 
and scenes. It is said, in defence of the variations which 
exist between the German original and. the version given 
by Coleridge, that he translated from a prompter's copy 
in manuscript, before the drama had been j^rinted, and 
that Schiller himself subsequently altered it, by omitting 
some passages, adding others, and even engrafting several 
of Coleridge's adaptations. 

WiLHELM Tell is translated by Theodore Martin, 
Esq., whose well-known position as a writer, and whose 
special acquaintance with German literature make any 
recommendation superfluous. 

DojV Carlos is translated by R. D. Boylan, Esq., and, in 
the opinion of competent judges, the version is eminently 
successful. Mr. Theodore Martin kindly gave some assist- 
ance, and, it is but justice to state, has enhanced the value 
of the work by his judicious suggestions. 

The translation of Mart Stuart is that by the late 
Joseph Mellish, who appears to have been on terms of 
intimate friendship with Scliiller. His version was made 
from the prompter's copy, befoi-e the play was published, 
and, like Coleridge's Wallenstein, contains many passages 
not found in the printed edition. These are distinguished 
by brackets. On the other hand, Mr. Mellish omitted 
many passages which now form part of the printed drama, 
all of which are now added. The translation, as a whole, 



PREFACE TO THE EDITION". V 

stands out from similar works of the time (1800) in almost 
as marked a degree as Coleridge's Wallenstein, and some 
passages exhibit powers of a high order ; a few, however, 
especially in the earlier scenes, seemed capable of improve- 
ment, and these have been revised, but, in deference to the 
translator, with a sparing hand. 

The Maid of Orleans is contributed by Miss Anna 
Swanwick, whose translation of Faust has since become 
well known. It has been carefully revised, and is now, 
for the first time, published complete. 

The Bride of Messina, which has been regarded as 
the poetical masterpiece of Schiller, and, perhaps of all his 
works, presents the greatest difficulties to the translator, 
is rendered by A. Lodge, Esq., M. A. This version, on its 
first publication in England, a few years ago, was received 
with deserved eulogy by distinguished critics. To the 
present edition has been prefixed Schiller's Essay on the 
Use of the Chorus in Tragedy, in which the author's 
favorite theory of the "Ideal of Art" is enforced with 
great ingenuity and eloquence. 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

TfflRTY YEAES' WAR IN GERMANY. 



BOOK I. 

Feom the beginning of the religious wars in Germany to 
the peace of Munster scarcely anything great or remark- 
able occurred in the political world of Europe in which the 
Reformation had not an important share. All the events 
of this period, if they did not originate in, soon became 
mixed up with, the question of religion, and no state was 
either too great or too little, to feel, directly or indirectly, 
more or less of its influence. 

Against the reformed doctrine and its adherents the 
House of Austria directed, almost exclusively, the whole 
of its immense political power. In France the Reforma- 
tion had enkindled a civil war which, under four stormy 
reigns, shook the kingdom to its foundations, brought 
foreign armies into the heart of the country, and for half 
a century rendered it the scene of the most mournful dis- 
orders. It was the Reformation, too, that rendered the 
Spanish yoke intolerable to the Flemings, and awakened 
in them both the desire and the courage to throw off its 
fetters, while it also principally furnished them with the 
means of their emancipation. And as to England, all the 
evils with which Philip II. threatened Elizabeth were 
mainly intended in revenge for her having taken his 
Protestant subjects under her protection, and placing 
herself at the head of a religious party which it was his 
aim and endeavor to extirpate. In Germany the schisms 
in the church produced also a lasting political schism, 
which made that country for more than a century the 
theatre of confusion, but at the same time threw up a 



6 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 

firm barrier against political oppression. It was, too, the 
Reformation principally that first drew the northern 
powers, Denmark and Sweden, into the political system 
of Europe ; and while, on the one hand, the Protestant 
League was strengthened by their adhesion, it, on the 
other, was indispensable to their interests. States which 
hitherto scarcely concerned themselves with one another's 
existence, acquired through the Reformation an attractive 
centre of interest, and began to be united by new political 
symj)athies. And as through its influence new relations 
sprang up between citizen and citizen, and between rulers 
and subjects, so also entire states were forced by it into 
new relative positions. Thus, by a strange course of 
events, religious disputes were the means of cementing a 
closer union among the nations of Europe. 

Fearful, indeed, and destructive was the first move- 
ment in which this general political sympathy announced 
itself ; a desolating war of thirty years, which, from the 
interior of Bohemia to the mouth of the Scheldt, and 
from the banks of the Po to the coasts of the Baltic, devas- 
tated whole countries, destroyed harvests, and reduced 
towns and villages to ashes ; which opened a grave for 
many thousand combatants, and for half a century smoth- 
ered the glimmering sparks of civilization in Germany, 
and threw back the improving manners of the country 
into their pristine barbarity and wildness. Yet out of 
this fearful war Europe came forth free and independent. 
In it she first learned to recognize herself as a community 
of nations; and this intercommunion of states, which origi- 
nated in the thirty years' war, may alone be sufiicient to 
reconcile the philosopher to its horrors. The hand of 
industry has slowly but gradually effaced the traces of 
its ravages, while its beneficent influence still survives ; 
and this general sympathy among the states of Europe, 
which grew out of the troubles in Bohemia, is our guaran- 
tee for the continuance of that peace which was the result 
of the war. As the sparks of destruction found their way 
from the interior of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, to 
kindle Germany, France, and the half of Europe, so also 
will the torch of civilization make a path for itself from 
the latter to enlighten the former countries. 



THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 7 

All this was effected by religion. Religion alone could 
have rendered possible all that was accomplished, but it 
was far from being the sole motive of the war. Had not 
private advantages and state interests been closely con- 
nected with it, vain and jDowerless would have been the 
arguments of theologians ; and the cry of the people would 
never have met with princes so willing to espouse their 
cause, nor the new doctrines have found such numerous, 
brave, and persevering champions. The Reformation is 
undoubtedly owing in a great measure to the invincible 
power of truth, or of opinions which were held as such. 
The abuses in the old church, the absurdity of many of 
its dogmas, the extravagance of its requisitions, necessa- 
rily revolted the tempers of men, already half-won with 
the promise of a better light, and favorably disposed them 
towards the new doctrines. The charm of independence, 
the rich plunder of monastic institutions, made the Re- 
formation attractive in the eyes of princes, and tended 
not a little to strengthen their inward convictions. 
Nothing, however, but political considerations could have 
driven them to espouse it. Had not Charles V., in the 
intoxication of success, made an attemjDt on the inde- 
pendence of the German States, a Protestant league 
would scarcely have rushed to arms in defence of freedom 
of belief ; but for the ambition of the Guises the Calvin- 
ists in France would never have beheld a Conde or a 
Coligny at their head. Without the exaction of the 
tenth and the twentieth penny, the See of Rome had 
never lost the United Netherlands. Princes fought in 
self-defence or for aggrandizement, while religious en- 
thusiasm recruited their armies and opened to them the 
treasures of their subjects. Of the multitude who flocked 
to their standards, such as were not lured by the hope of 
plunder imagined they were fighting for the truth, while 
in fact they were shedding their blood for the personal 
objects of their princes. 

And well was it for the people that, on this occasion, their 
interests coincided with those of their princes. To this 
coincidence alone were they indebted for their deliverance 
from popery. Well was it also for the rulers that the 
subject contended too for his own cause, while he was fight- 



8 THE THIRTY YiEARS' WAR. 

ing their battles. Fortunately at this date no European 
sovereign was so absolute as to be able, in the pursuit of 
his political designs, to dispense with the good-will of his 
subjects. Yet how difficult was it to gain and to set to 
work this good- will! The most impressive arguments 
drawn from reasons of state fall powerless on the ear of 
the subject, who seldom understands, and still more rarely 
is interested in them. In such circumstances, the only 
course open to a prudent prince is to connect the interests 
of the cabinet with some one that sits nearer to the 
people's heart, if such exists, or if not, to create it. 

In such a position stood a greater part of those princes 
who embraced the cause of the Reformation. By a strange 
concatenation of events the divisions of the Church were 
associated with two circumstances, without which, in all 
probability, they would have had a very different conclu- 
sion. These were the increasing power of the House of 
Austria, which threatened the liberties of Europe, and its 
active zeal for the old religion. The first aroused the 
princes, while the second armed the people. 

The abolition of a foreign jurisdiction within their 
own territories, the supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, 
the stopping of the treasure which had so long flowed to 
Rome, the rich plunder of religious foundations, were 
tempting advantages to eveiy sovereign. Why, then, 
it may be asked, did they not operate with equal force 
upon the princes of the House of Austria? What pre- 
vented this house, particularly in its German branch, from 
yielding to the pressing demands of so many of its sub- 
jects, and, after the example of other princes, enriching 
itself at the exj)ense of a defenceless clergy ? It is dif- 
ficult to credit that a belief in the infallibility of the 
Romish Church had any greater influence on the pious 
"db.f'rence of this house than the opposite conviction had 
on thbi'^olt of the Protestant princes. In fact, several 
ciroumstancc^^ombined to make the Austrian princes 
zealous supportei^-^f popery. Spain and Italy, from 
which Austria derive^'ts, principal strength, were still 
devoted to the See of Ro.o ^yjth that blind obedience 
which, ever since the days _o>i^e Gothic dvnasty, had 
been the peculiar characteristic ^f ^j^g Spaniard. The 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 9 

slightest approximation in a Spanish prince to the ob- 
noxious tenets of Luther and Calvin would have alienated 
forever the affections of his subjects, and a defection 
from the Poi^e would have cost him tlie kingdom. A 
Spanish prince had no alternative but orthodoxy or abdi- 
cation. The same restraint was imposed upon Austria 
by her Italian dominions, which she was obliged to treat, 
if possible, with even greater indulgence ; impatient as 
they naturally were of a foreign yoke, and possessing also 
ready means of shaking it off. In regard to the latter 
provinces, moreover, the rival jaretensions of France, and 
the neighborhood of the Pope, were motives sufficient to 
prevent the Emperor from declaring in favor of a party 
which strove to annihilate the papal see, and also to in- 
duce him to show the most active zeal in behalf of the 
old religion. These general considerations, which must 
have been equally weighty with every Spanish monarch, 
were, in the particular case of Charles V., still further 
enforced by peculiar and personal motives. In Italy this 
monarch had a formidable rival in the King of France, 
under whose protection that country might throw itself 
the instant that Charles should incur the slightest sus- 
picion of heresy. Distrust on the part of the Roman 
Catholics, and a rupture with the church, would have 
been fatal also to many of his most cherished designs. 
Moreover, when Charles was first called vijjon to make 
his election between the two parties, the new doctrine had 
not yet attained to a full and commanding influence, and 
there still subsisted a prospect of its reconciliation with 
the old. In his son and successor, Philip II., a monastic 
education combined with a gloomy and despotic 
disposition to generate an unmitigated hostility to all in- 
novations in religion; a feeling which the thought that his 
most formidable political opponents were also the ene- 
mies of his faith was not calculated to weaken. As his 
European possessions, scattered as they were over so 
many countries, were on all sides exposed to the seduc- 
tions of foreign opinions, the progress of the Reformation 
in other quarters could not well be a matter of indiffer- 
ence to him. His immediate interests, therefore, urged 
him to attach himself devotedly to the old church, ia 



10 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

order to close up the sources of the heretical contagion. 
Thus circumstances naturally placed this prince at the 
head of the league which the Roman Catholics formed 
against the Reformers. The principles which had actu- 
ated the long and active reigns of Charles V. and Philip 
II. remained a law for their successors ; and the more 
the breach in the church widened the firmer became 
the attachment of the Spaniards to Roman Catholicism. 

The German line of the House of Austria was appar- 
ently more unfettered ; but in reality, though free from 
many of these restraints, it was yet confined by others. 
The possession of the imperial throne — a dignity it was 
impossible for a Protestant to hold (for with what con- 
sistency could an apostate from the Romish Church wear 
the crown of a Roman Emperor?) bound the successors 
of Ferdinand I. to the See of Rome. Ferdinand himself 
was, from conscientious motives, heartily attached to it. 
Besides, the German princes of the House of Austria were 
not powerful enough to dispense with the support of Spain, 
which, however, they would have forfeited by the least 
show of leaning towards the new doctrines. The impe- 
rial dignity, also, required them to preserve the existing 
political system of Germany, with which the maintenance 
of their own authority was closely bound up, but which 
it was the aim of the Protestant League to destroy. If 
to these grounds we add the indifference of the Protes- 
tants to the Emperor's necessities and to the common 
dangers of the empire, their encroachments on the tem- 
poralities of the church, and their aggressive violence 
when they became conscious of their own power, we can 
easily conceive how so many concurring motives must 
have determined the emperors to the side of popery, and 
how their own interests came to be intimately inter- 
woven with those of the Romish Church. As its fate 
seemed to depend altogether on the part taken by Austria, 
the princes of this house came to be regarded by all Eu- 
rope as the pillars of popery. The hatred, therefore, 
which the Protestants bore against the latter was turned 
exclusively upon Austria; and the cause became grad- 
ually confounded with its protector. 

But this irreconcilable enemy of the Reformation — ^ 



THE THIKTY YEAES' WAR. 11 

the House of Austria — by its ambitious projects and 
the overwhelming force which it could bring to their sup- 
port, endangered, in no small degree, the freedom of Eu- 
rope, and more especially of the German States. This 
circumstance could not fail to rouse the latter from their 
security, and to render them vigilant in self-defence. 
Their ordinary resources were quite insufficient to resist 
so formidable a power. Extraordinary exertions were 
required from their subjects ; and when even these proved 
far from adequate, they had recourse to foreign assist- 
ance ; and, by means of a common league, they endeav- 
ored to oppose a power which, singly, they were unable 
to withstand. 

But the strong political inducements which the German 
princes had to resist the pretensions of the House of 
Austria, naturally, did not extend to their subjects. It is 
only immediate advantages or immediate evils that set 
the people in action, and for these a sound policy cannot 
wait. Ill then would it have fared with these princes if 
by good fortune another effectual motive had not offered 
itself, which roused the passions of the people, and kindled 
in them an enthusiasm which might be directed against the 
political danger, as having with it a common cause of alarm. 

This motive was their avowed hatred of the religion 
which Austria protected, and their enthusiastic attachment 
to a doctrine which that house was endeavoring to extir- 
pate by fire and sword. Their attachment was ardent, 
their hatred invincible. Religious fanaticism anticipates 
even the remotest dangers. Enthusiasm never calculates 
its sacrifices. What the most pressing danger of the state 
could not gain from the citizens was effected by religious 
zeal. For the state, or for the prince, few would have 
drawn the sword ; but for religion the merchant, the 
artist, the peasant, all cheerfully flew to arms. For the 
state or for the prince even the smallest additional impost 
would have been avoided ; but for religion the people 
readily staked at once life, fortune, and all earthly hopes. 
It trebled the contributions which flowed into the ex- 
chequer of the princes, and the armies which marched to 
the field; and, in the ardent excitement produced in all 
minds by the peril to which their faith was exposed, the 



.?2 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

subject felt not the pressure of those burdens and privai 
tions under which, in cooler moments, he would have sunk 
exhausted. The terrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew's, procured for the 
Prince of Orange, the Admiral Coligny, the British Queen 
Elizabeth, and the Protestant princes of Germany, sup' 
plies of men and money from their subjects to a degree 
which at present is inconceivable. 

But, with all theii* exertions, they would have effected 
little against a power which was an overmatch for any 
single adversary, however powerful. At this period of 
imperfect policy accidental circumstances alone could 
determine distant states to afford one another a mutual 
support. The differences of government, of laws, of 
language, of manners, and of character, which hitherto 
had kept whole nations and countries as it were insulated, 
and raised a lasting barrier between them, rendered one 
state insensible to the distresses of another, save where 
national jealousy could indulge a malicious joy at the 
reverses of a rival. This barrier the Reformation de- 
stroyed. An interest more intense and more immediate 
than national aggrandizement or patriotism, and entirely 
independent of private utility, began to animate whole 
states and individual citizens ; an interest capable of uniting 
numerous and distant nations, even while it frequently 
lost its force among the subjects of the same government. 
"With the inhabitants of Geneva, for instance, of England, 
of Germany, or of Holland, the French Calvinist possessed 
a common point of union which he had not with his own 
countrymen. Thus, in one important particular, he ceased 
to be the citizen of a single state, and to confine his views 
and sympathies to his own country alone. The 
sphere of his views became enlarged. He began to 
calculate his own fate from that of other nations of the 
same religious profession, and to make their cause his 
own. Now for the first time did princes venture to 
bring the affairs of other countries before their own 
councils ; for the first time could they hope for a willing 
ear to their own necessities, and prompt assistance from 
others. Foreign affairs had now become a matter of 
domestic policy, and that aid was readily granted to the 



THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 13 

religious confederate which would have been denied to 
the mere neighbor, and still more to the distant stranger. 
The inhabitant of the Palatinate leaves his native fields to 
fight side by side with his religious associate of France, 
against the common enemy of their faith. The Huguenot 
draws his sword against the country which persecutes 
him, and sheds his blood in defence of the liberties of 
Holland. Swiss is arrayed against Swiss; German 
against German, to determine, on the banks of the Loire 
and the Seine, the succession of the French crown. The 
Dane crosses the Eider, and the Swede the Baltic, to 
break the chains which are forged for Germany. 

It is difficult to say what would have been the fate of 
the Reformation, and the liberties of the empire, had not 
the formidable power of Austria declared against them. 
This, however, appears certain, that nothing so com- 
pletely damped the Austrian hopes of universal monarchy 
as the obstinate war which they had to wage against the 
new religious opinions. Under no other circumstances 
could the weaker princes have roused their subjects to 
such extraordinary exertions against the ambition of 
Austria, or the states themselves have united so closely 
against the common enemy. 

The power of Austria never stood higher than after 
the victory which Charles V. gained over the Germans at 
MiJhlberg. With the treaty of Smalcalde the freedom of 
Germany lay, as it seemed, prostrate forever; but it 
revived under Maurice of Saxony, once its most formid- 
able enemy. All the fruits of the victory of Miihlberg 
were lost again in the Congress of Passau and the Diet of 
Augsburg ; and every scheme of civil and religious oppres- 
sion terminated in the concessions of an equitable peace. 

The Diet of Augsburg divided Germany into two 
religious and two political pai'ties, by recognizing the 
independent rights and existence of both. Hitherto the 
Protestants had been looked on as rebels ; they were 
henceforth to be regarded as brethren — not, indeed, 
through affection, but necessity. By the Interim,* the 

* A system of Theology, so called, prepared by order of the Emperor 
Charles V. for the use of Germany, to reconcile the differences between the 
Roman Catholics and the Lutherans, which, however, was rejected by both 
parties.— Ed, 



14 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Confession of Augsburg was allowed temporarily to taka 
a sisterly place alongside of the olden religion, though 
only as a tolerated neighbor. To every secular state was 
conceded the right of establishing the religion it acknowl- 
edged as supreme and exclusive within its own territories, 
and of forbidding the open profession of its rival. Subjects 
were to be free to quit a country where their own religion 
was not tolerated. The doctrines of Luther for the first 
time received a positive sanction ; and if they were 
trampled under foot in Bavaria and Austria they j^re- 
dominated in Saxony and Thurangia. But the sovereigns 
alone were to determine what form of religion should 
prevail within their terdtories ; the feelings of subjects 
who had no representatives in the Diet were little at- 
tended to in the pacification. In the ecclesiastical 
territories, indeed, where the unreformed religion enjoyed 
an undisputed supremacy, the free exercise of their 
religion was obtained for all who had previously era- 
braced the Protestant doctrines; but this indulgence 
rested only on the personal guarantee of Ferdinand, King 
of the Romans, by whose endeavors chiefly this peace 
was effected ; a guarantee, which, being rejected by the 
Roman Catholic members of tlie Diet, and only inserted 
in the treaty under their protest, could not of course have 
the force of law. 

If it had been opinions only that thus divided the 
minds of men, with what indifference would all have 
regarded the division ! But on these opinions depended 
riches, dignities, and rights; and it was this which so 
deeply aggravated the evils of division. Of two brothers, 
as it were, who had hitherto enjoyed a paternal inherit- 
ance in common, one now remained, while the other was 
compelled to leave his father's house, and hence arose the 
necessity of dividing the patrimony. For this separa- 
tion, which he could not have foreseen, the father 
had made no provision. By the beneficent donations of 
pious ancestors the riches of the church had been 
accumulating through a thousand years, and these 
l)enefactors were as much the progenitors of the 
departing brother as of him who remained. Was the 
right of inheritance then to be limited to the paternal 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 15 

house, or to be extended to blood ? The gifts had been 
made to the church in communion with Rome, because at 
that time no otlier existed, — to the first born, as it were, 
because he was as yet the only son. Was then a right 
of primogeniture to be admitted in the church, as in 
noble families? Were the pretensions of one party to be 
favored by a prescription from times when the claims of 
the other could not have come into existence. Could the 
Lutherans be justly excluded from these possessions, to 
which the benevolence of their forefathers had con- 
tributed, merely on the ground that, at the date of their 
foundation, the differences between Lutheranism and 
Komanism were unknown ? Both parties have disputed, 
and still dispute, with equal plausibility, on these points. 
Both alike have found it difficult to prove their right. 
Law can be applied only to conceivable cases, and per- 
haps spiritual foundations are not among the number of 
these, and still less where the conditions of the founders 
generally extended to a system of doctrines ; for how is 
it conceivable that a permanent endowment should be 
made of opinions left open to change ? 

What law cannot decide is usually determined by 
might, and such was the case here. The one party held 
firmly all that could no longer be wrested from it — the 
other defended what it still possessed. All the bishoprics 
and abbeys which had been secularized before the peace 
remained with the Protestants ; but, by an express clause, 
the unreformed Catholics provided that none should 
thereafter be secularized. Every impropriator of an ec- 
clesiastical foundation, who held immediately of the Em- 
pire, whether elector, bishop, or abbot, forfeited his ben- 
efice and dignity the moment he embraced the Protestant 
belief; he was obliged in that event instantly to resign 
its emoluments, and the chapter was to proceed to a new 
election, exactly as if his place had been vacated by death. 
By this sacred anchor of the Ecclesiastical Reservation 
{iieservatum JiJcclesiasticuni), which makes the temporal 
existence of a spiritual prince entirely depend on his fidel- 
ity to the olden religion, the Roman Catholic Church 
in Germany is still held fast ; and precarious, indeed, 
would be its situation were this anchor to give way. 



J 6 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

The principle of the Ecclesiastical Reservation waa 
strongly opposed by the Protestants ; and though it was 
at last adopted into the treaty of peace, its insertion was 
qualified with the declaration, that parties had come to 
no final determination on the point. Could it then be 
more binding on the Protestants than Ferdinand's guar, 
antee in favor of Protestant subjects of ecclesiastical 
states was upon the Roman Catholics ? Thus were two 
important subjects of dispute left unsettled in the treaty 
of peace, and by them the war was rekindled. 

Such was the position of things with regard to relig- 
ious toleration and ecclesiastical property; it was the 
same with regard to rights and dignities. The existing 
German system provided only for one church, because 
one only was in existence when that system -was framed. 
The church had now divided ; the Diet had broken into 
two religious parties ; was the whole system of the Em- 
pire still exclusively tO follow the one ? The emperors 
had hitherto been members of the Romish Church, be- 
cause till now that religion had no rival. But was it his 
connection with Rome which constituted a German em- 
peror, or was it not rather Germany which was to be rep- 
resented in its head ? The Protestants were now sjjread 
over the whole Empire, and how could they justly still 
be represented by an unbroken line of Roman Catholic 
emperors? In the Imperial Chamber the German States 
judge themselves, for they elect the judges ; it was the 
very end of its institution that they should do so, in 
order that equal justice should be dispensed to all ; but 
■would this be still possible if the representatives of both 
professions were not equally admissible to a seat in the 
Chamber? That one religion only existed in Germany at 
the time of its establishment was accidental ; that no one 
estate should have the means of legally oi^pressing another, 
Tvas the essential purpose of the institution. Now this 
object would be entirely frustrated if one religious party 
were to have the exclusive power of deciding for the 
other. Must, then, the design be sacrificed because that 
which was merely accidental had changed? With great 
difiiculty the Protestants, at last, obtained for the repre- 
rentatives of their religion a i>]a.ce in the Supreme Council, 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 17 

but still there was far from being a perfect equality 
of voices. To this dny no Protestant prince has been 
raised to the imperial throne. 

Whatever may be said of the equality which the peace 
of Augsburg was to have established between the two 
German churches, the Roman Catholic had unquestionably 
still the advantage. All that the Lutheran Church gained 
by it was toleration; all that the Romish Church con- 
ceded was a sacrifice to necessity, not an offering to 
justice. Very far was it from being a peace between two 
equal powers, but a truce between a sovereign and 
unconquered rebels. From this principle all the proceed- 
ings of the Roman Catholics against the Protestants seemed 
to flow, and still continue to do so. To join the reformed 
faith was still a crime, since it was to be visited with so 
severe a penalty as that which the Ecclesiastical Reserva^ 
tion held suspended over the apostacy of the spiritual 
princes. Even to the last the Romish Church preferred 
to risk the loss of everything by force than voluntarily 
to yield the smallest matter to justice. The loss was 
accidental and might be repaired ; but the abandonment 
of its pretensions, the concession of a single point to the 
Protestants, would shake the foundations of the church 
itself. Even in the treaty of peace this principle was not 
lost sight of. Whatever in this peace was yielded to the 
Pi'otestants was always under condition. It was ex- 
pressly declared that affairs were to remain on the 
stipulated footing only till the next general council, 
which was to be called with the view of effecting a 
union between the two confessions. Then only, when 
this last attempt should have failed, was the religious 
treaty to become valid and conclusive. However little 
hope there might be of such a reconciliation, however little 
perhaps the Romanists themselves were in earnest with it, 
still it was something to have clogged the peace with 
these stipulations. 

Thus this religious treaty, which was to extinguish for- 
ever the flames of civil war, was, in fact, but a temporary 
truce, extorted by force and necessity ; not dictated by 
justice, nor emanating from just notions either of religion 
or toleration. A religious treaty of this kind the Roman 



18 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Catholics were as incapable of granting, to be candid, as m 
truth the Lutherans were unqualified to receive. Far from 
evincing a tolerant spirit towards the Roman Catholics, 
when it was in their power, they even oppressed the Cal- 
vinists; who indeed just as little deserved toleration, since 
they were unwilling to practise it. For such a jseace the 
times were not yet ripe — the minds of men not yet 
sufiiciently enlightened. How could one party expect 
from another what itself was incapable of performing? 
What each side saved or gained by the treaty of 
Augsburg it owed to the imposing attitude of strength 
which it maintained at the time of its negotiation. 
What was won by force was to be maintained also by 
force ; if the peace was to be permanent, the two parties 
to it must preserve the same relative positions. The 
boundaries of the two churches had been marked out 
with the sword ; with the sword they must be preserved, 
or woe to that party which should be first disarmed ! A 
sad and fearful prospect for the tranquillity of Germany 
when peace itself bore so threatening an aspect. 

A momentary lull now pervaded the empire ; a tran- 
sitory bond of concord appeared to unite its scattered 
limbs into one body, so that for a time a feeling also for 
the common weal returned. But the division had j^ene- 
trated its inmost being, and to restore its original harmony 
was impossible. Carefully as the treaty of peace appeared 
to have defined the rights of both parties, its interpreta- 
tion was nevertheless the subject of many disputes. In 
the heat of conflict it had produced a cessation of hostili- 
ties; it covered, not extinguished, the fire, and unsatisfied 
claims remained on either side. The Romanists imagined 
they had lost too much, the Protestants that they had 
gained too little ; and the treaty which neither party 
could venture to violate was interpreted by each in its 
own favor. 

The seizure of the ecclesiastical benefices, the motive 
which had so strongly tempted the majority of the 
Protestant princes to embrace the doctrines of Luther, 
was not less powerful after than before the peace ; of 
those whose founders had not held their fiefs imme- 
diately of the empire, such as were not already in their 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 19 

possession would it was evident soon be so. The whole 
of Lower Germany was already secularized ; and if it were 
ofherwise in Upper Germany, it was owing to the vehe- 
ment resistance of the Catholics, who had there the pre- 
ponderance. Each party, where it was the most powerful, 
oppressed the adherents of the other ; the ecclesiastical 
princes in particular, as the most defenceless members of 
the empire, were incessantly tormented by the ambition 
of their Protestant neighbors. Those who were too 
weak to repel force by force took refuge under the wings 
of justice ; and the complaints of spoliation were heaped 
up against the Protestants in the Imperial Chamber, 
which was ready enough to pursue the accused with 
judgments, but found too little support to carry them 
into effect. The peace which stipulated for complete 
religious toleration for the dignitaries of the Empire, had 
provided also for the subject, by enabling him, without 
interruption, to leave the country in which the exercise 
of his religion was prohibited. But from the wrongs 
which the violence of a sovereign might inflict on an 
obnoxious subject; from the nameless oppressions by 
which he might harass and annoy the emigrant ; from 
the artful snares in which subtilty combined with power 
might enmesh him — from these the dead letter of the 
treaty could afford him no protection. The Catholic 
subject of Protestant princes complained loudly of 
violations of the religious peace — the Lutherans still 
more loudly of the oppression they experienced under 
their Romanist suzerains. The rancor and animosities of 
theologians infused a poison into every occurrence, how- 
ever inconsiderable, and inflamed the minds of the people. 
Happy would it have been had this theological hatred 
exhausted its zeal upon the common enemy, instead of 
venting its virus on the adherents of a kindred faith ! 

Unanimity amongst the Protestants might, by preserving 
the balance between the contending parties, have pro- 
longed the peace; but, as if to complete the confusion, 
all concord was quickly broken. The doctrines which 
had been propagated by Zuingli in Zurich, and by Calvin 
in Geneva, soon spread to Germany, and divided the 
Protestants among themselves, with little in unison save 



20 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

tlieir common hatred to popery. The Protestants of this 
date bore but slight resemblance to those who, fifty years 
before, drew up the Confession of Augsburg; and the 
cause of the change is to be sought in that Confession 
itself. It had prescribed a positive boundary to the 
Protestant faith, before the newly-awakened spirit of 
inquiry had satisfied itself as to the limits it ought to set; 
and the Protestants seemed unwittingly to have thrown 
away much of the advantage acquired by their rejection 
of popery. Common complaints of the Romish hierarchy 
and of ecclesiastical abuses, and a common disapprobation 
of its dogmas, formed a sufiicient centre of union for the 
Protestants ; but not content with this, they sought a 
rallying point in the promulgation of a new and positive 
creed, in which they sought to embody the distinctions, 
the privileges, and the essence of the church, and to this 
they referred the convention entered into with their 
opponents. It was as professors of this creed that they 
had acceded to the treaty; and in the benefits of this 
peace the advocates of the Confession were alone entitled 
to participate. In any case, therefore, the situation of 
its adherents was embarrassing. If a blind obedience 
were yielded to the dicta of the Confession, a lasting 
bound would be set to the spirit of inquiry; if, on the 
other hand, they dissented from the formulae agreed 
upon, the point of union would be lost. Unfortunately 
both incidents occurred, and the evil results of both 
were quickly felt. One party rigorously adhered to the 
original symbol of faith, and the other abandoned it, only 
to adopt another with equal exclusiveness. 

Nothing could have furnished the common enemy a 
more plausible defence of his cause than this dissension ; 
no siJectacle could have been more gratifying to him than 
the rancor with which the Protestants alternately per- 
secuted each other. Who could condemn the Roman 
Catholics if they laughed at the audacity with which the 
Reformers had presumed to announce the only true 
belief? — if from Protestants they borrowed the weapons 
against Protestants? — if, in the midst of this clashing of 
opinions, they held fast to the authority of their own 
church, for which, in part, there spoke an honorable 



THE THIRTr YEARS ' WAR. ^1 

antiquity, and a yet more honorable plurality of voices. 
But this division placed the Protestants in still more 
serious embarrassments. As the covenants of the treaty 
applied only to the partisans of the Confession, their 
opponents, with some reason, called u^jon them to explain 
who were to be recognized as the adherents of that 
creed. The Lutherans could not, without offending 
conscience, include the Calvinists in their communion ; 
except at the risk of converting a useful friend into a 
dangerous enemy, could they exclude them. This un- 
fortunate difference opened a way for the machinations 
of the Jesuits to sow distrust between both parties, and 
to destroy the unity of their measures. Fettered by the 
double fear of their direct adversaries, and of their 
opponents among themselves, the Protestants lost for- 
ever the opportunity of placing their church on a perfect 
equality with the Catholic. All these difficulties would 
have been avoided, and the defection of the Calvinists 
would not have prejudiced the common cause, if the point 
of union had been placed simply in the abandonment of 
Romanism, instead of in the Confession of Augsburg. 

But however divided on other points, they concurred 
in this — that the security which had resulted from 
equality of power could only be maintained by the 
preservation of that balance. In the meanwhile, the con- 
tinual reforms of one party, and the opposing measures 
of the other, kept both upon the watch, while the inter- 
pretation of the religious treaty was a never-ending 
subject of dispute. Each party maintained that every 
step taken by its opponent was an infraction of the peace, 
while of every movement of its own it was asserted that 
it was essential to its maintenance. Yet all the measures 
of the Catholics did not, as their opponents alleged, 
proceed from a spirit of encroachment — many of them 
were the necessary precautions of self-defence. The 
Protestants had shown unequivocally enough what the 
Romanists might expect if they were unfortunate enough 
to become the weaker party. The greediness of the 
former for the property of the church, gave no reason to 
expect indulgence; — their bitter hatred left no hope of 
magnanimity or forbearance. 



22 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

But the Protestants, likewise, were excusable if they, 
too, placed little confidence in the sincerity of the Roman 
Catholics. By the treacherous and inhuman treatment 
which their brethren in Spain, France, and the Nether- 
lands had suffered ; by the disgraceful subterfuge of the 
Romish princes, who held that the Pope had power to 
relieve them from the obligation of the most solemn 
oaths ; and above all, by the detestable maxim, that faith 
was not to be kept with heretics, the Roman Church, in 
the eyes of all honest men, had lost its honor. No 
engagement, no oath, however sacred, from a Roman 
Catholic, could satisfy a Protestant. What security 
then could the religious peace afford, when, throughout 
Germany, the Jesuits represented it as a measure of 
mere temporary convenience, and in Rome itself it was 
solemnly repudiated. 

The General Council, to which reference had been 
made in the treaty, had already been held in the city of 
Trent ; but, as might have been foreseen, without accom- 
modating the i-eligious differences, or taking a single step 
to effect such accommodation, and even without being 
attended by the Protestants. The latter, indeed, were 
now solemnly excommunicated by it in the name of the 
church, whose representative the Council gave itself out 
to be. Could, then, a secular treaty, extorted moreover 
by force of arms, afford them adequate protection against 
the ban of the church ; a treaty, too, based on a condition 
which the decision of the Council seemed entirely to abol- 
ish ? There was then a show of right for violating the peace, 
if only the Romanists possessed the power; and hence- 
forward the Protestants were protected by nothing but 
the respect for tlieir formidable array. 

Other circumstances combined to augment this distrust. 
Spain, on whose support the Romanists in Germany 
chiefly relied, was engnged in a bloody conflict with the 
Flemings. By it the flower of the Spanish troops were 
drawn to the confines of Germany. With what ease 
might they be introduced within the empire, if a decisive 
sti'oke should render tlieir presence necessary ? Germany 
was at that time a mngazine of war for nearly all the 
powers of Europe. The religious war had crowded it 



THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 23 

with soldiers, whom the peace left destitute; its many 
indejDendent princes found it easy to assemble armies, 
and afterwards, for the sake of gain or the interests of 
party, hire them out to other powers. With German 
troops Philip II. waged war against the Netherlands, 
and with German troops they defended themselves. 
Every such levy in Germany was a subject of alarm to 
the one party or the other, since it might be intended for 
their oppression. The arrival of an ambassador, an 
extraordinary legate of the Pope, a conference of princes, 
every unusual incident, must, it was thought, be pregnant 
with destruction to some party. Thus, for nearly half a 
century, stood Germany, her hand upon the sword ; every 
rustle of a leaf alarmed her. 

Ferdinand I., King of Hungary, and his excel- 
lent son, Maximilian II., held at this memorable epoch 
the reins of government. With a heart full of 
sincerity, with a truly hei'oic patience, had Ferdinand 
brought about the religious peace of Augsburg, and 
afterwards, in the Council of Trent, labored assiduously, 
though vainly, at the ungrateful task of reconciling the 
two religions. Abandoned by his nephew, Philip of 
Spain, and hard pressed both in Hungary and Transyl- 
vania by the victorious armies of the Turks, it was not 
likely that this emperor would entertain the idea of 
violating the religious j^eace, and thereby destroying his 
own painful work. The heavy expenses of the per- 
petually recurring war with Turkey could not be defrayed 
hy the meagre contributions of his exhausted hereditary 
dominions. He stood, therefore, in need of the assistance 
of the whole empii*e ; and the religious peace alone pre- 
served in one body the otherwise divided empire, 
Financial necessities made the Protestant as needful to 
him as the Romanist, and imposed upon him the 
obligation of treating both parties with equal justice, 
which, amidst so many contradictory claims, was truly a 
colossal task. Very far, however, was the result from 
answering his expectations. His indulgence of the 
Protestants served only to bring upon his successors a 
war, which death saved himself the mortification of 
witnessing. Scarcely more fortunate was his son Maxi- 



24 THE TmRTY YEAES' WAR. 

milian, with whom perhaps the pressure of circumstances 
was the only obstacle, and a longer life perhaps the only 
want to his establishing the new religion upon the 
imperial throne. Necessity had taught the father for- 
bearance towards the Protestants — necessity and justice 
dictated the same course to the son. The grandson had 
reason to repent that he neither listened to justice nor 
yielded to necessity. 

Maximilian left six sons, of whom the eldest, the Arch- 
duke Rodolph, inherited his dominions, and ascended 
the imperial throne. The other brothers were put off 
with petty appanages. A few mesne fiefs were held by a 
collateral branch, which had their uncle, Charles of 
Styria, at its head ; and even these were afterwards 
under his son, Ferdinand II., incorporated with the rest 
of the family dominions. With this exception, the whole 
of the imposing power of Austria was now wielded by a 
single but unfortunately weak hand. 

Rodolph II. was not devoid of those virtues which 
might have gained him the esteem of mankind had the 
lot of a private station fallen to him. His character was 
mild; he loved peace and the sciences, particularly 
astronomy, natural history, chemistry, and the study of 
antiquities. To these he applied with a passionate zeal, 
which at the very time when the critical posture of 
affairs demanded all his attention, and his exhausted 
finances the most rigid economy, diverted his attention 
from state affairs, and involved him in pernicious 
expenses. His taste for astronomy soon lost itself in 
those astrological reveries to which timid and melancholy 
temperaments like his are but too disposed. This, to- 
gether with a youth passed in Spain, opened his ears to 
the evil counsels of the Jesuits and the influence of the 
Spanish court, by which at last he was wholly governed. 
Ruled by tastes so little in accordance with the dignity 
of his station, and alarmed by ridiculous jn-ophecies, he 
withdrew, after the Spanish custom, from the eyes of his 
subjects, to bury himself amidst his gems and antiques, 
or to make experiments in his laboratory, while tlie most 
fatal discords loosened all the bands of the empire, and 
the flames of rebellion began to burst out at the very 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 25 

footsteps of his throne. All access to his person was 
denied, the most urgent matters were neglected. The 
prospect of the rich inheritance of Spain was closed 
against him while he was trying to make up his mind to 
offer his hand to the Infanta Isabella. A fearful anarchy 
threatened the Empire, for, though without an heir of his 
own body, he could not be persuaded to allow the election 
of a King of the Romans. The Austrian States renounced 
their allegiance, Hungary and Transylvania threw off his 
supremacy, and Bohemia was not slow in following their 
example. The descendant of the once so formidable 
Charles V. was in perpetual danger, either of losing one 
part of his possessions to the Turks, or another to the 
Protestants, and of sinking beyond redemption under the 
formidable coalition which a great monarch of Europe 
had formed against him. The events which now took 
place in the interior of Germany were such as usually 
happened when either the throne was without an emperor 
or the emperor without a sense of his imperial dignity. 
Outraged or abandoned by their head, the states of the 
empire were left to help themselves; and alliances 
among themselves must sujiply the defective authority of 
the emperor. Germany was divided into two leagues, 
which stood in arms arrayed against each other : between 
both, Rodolph, the despised opponent of the one, and the 
impotent protector of the other, remained irresolute and 
useless, equally unable to destroy the former or to com- 
mand the latter. What had the Empire to look for from 
a prince incapable even of defending his hereditary do- 
minions against its domestic enemies ? To prevent the 
utter ruin of the House of Austria, his own family 
combined against him ; and a powerful party threw itself 
into the arms of his brother. Driven from his hereditary 
dominions, nothing was now left him to lose but the 
imperial dignity ; and he was only spared this last dis- 
grace by a timely death. 

At this critical moment, when only a supple policy, 
united with a vigorous arm, could have maintained the 
tranquillity of the Empire, its evil genius gave it a Ro- 
dolph for emperor. At a more peaceful period the Gei*- 
manic Union would have managed its own interests, and 



26 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

Rodolph, like so many others of his rank, might have 
hidden his deficiencies in a mysterious obscurity. But 
the urgent demand for the qualities in which he was 
most deficient revealed his incapacity. The position of 
Germany called for an emperor who, by his known 
energies, could give weight to his resolves ; and the 
hereditary dominions of Rodolph, considerable as they 
were, were at present in a situation to occasion the 
greatest embarrassment to the governors. 

The Austrian princes, it is true, were Roman Cath- 
olics, and, in addition to that, the supporters of popery, 
but their countries were far from being so. The re- 
formed opinions had penetrated even these, and, favored 
by Ferdinand's necessities and Maximilian's mildness, 
had met with a rapid success. The Austrian provinces 
exhibited in miniature what Germany did on a larger 
scale. The great nobles and the ritter class or knights 
were chiefly evangelical, and in the cities the Protestants 
had a decided preponderance. If they succeeded in 
bringing a few of their party into the country, they 
contrived imperceptibly to fill all places of trust and the 
magisti-acy with their own adherents, and to exclude the 
Catholics. Against the numerous order of the nobles 
and knights, and the deputies from the towns, the voice 
of a few prelates was powerless ; and the unseemly 
ridicule and offensive contempt of the former soon drove 
them entirely from the provincial diets. Thus the whole 
of the Austrian Diet had imperceptibly become Protes- 
tant, and the Reformation was making rapid strides 
towards its public recognition. The prince was depend- 
ent on the Estates, who had it in tlieir power to grant 
or refuse supplies. Accordingly, they availed themselves 
of the financial necessities of Ferdinand and his son to 
extort one religious concession after another. To the 
nobles and knights Maximilian at last conceded the free 
exercise of their religion, but only within their own 
territories and castles. The intemperate enthusiasm of 
the Protestant preachers overstepped the bound aiies 
which prudence had prescribed. In defiance of the 
express prohibition, several of them ventured to preach 
publicly, not only in the towns, but in Vienna itself, and 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 27 

the people flocked in crowds to this new doctrine, the 
best seasoning of which was personality and abuse. 
Thus continued food was supplied to fanaticism, and the 
hatred of two churches, that were such near neighbors, 
was farther envenomed by the sting of an impure zeal. 

Among the hereditary dominions of the House of 
Austria, Hungary and Transylvania were the most un- 
stable and the most difficult to retain. The impossibility 
of holding these two countries against the neighboring 
and overwhelming power of the Turks had already driven 
Ferdinand to the inglorious expedient of recognizing, by 
an annual tribute, the Porte's supremacy over Transylva- 
nia, — a shameful confession of weakness, and a still more 
dangerous temptation to the turbulent nobility, when they 
fancied they had any reason to complain of their master. 
Not without conditions had the Hungarians submitted 
to the House of Austria. They asserted the elective 
freedom of their crown, and boldly contended for all 
those prerogatives of their order which are inseparable 
from this freedom of election. The near neighborhood 
of Turkey, the facility of changing masters with impu- 
nity, encouraged the magnates still more in their pre- 
sumption; discontented with the Austrian government, 
they threw themselves into the arms of the Turks ; dis- 
satisfied with these, they returned again to their German 
sovereigns. The frequency and rapidity of these transi- 
tions from one government to another had communi- 
cated its influences also to their mode of thinking; and as 
their country wavered between the Turkish and Austrian 
rule,_ so their minds vacillated between revolt and sub- 
mission. The more unfortunate each nation felt itself in 
being degraded into a province of a foreign kingdom, the 
stronger desire did they feel to obey a monarch chosen 
from amongst themselves, and thus it was always easy for 
an enterprising noble to obtain their support. The 
nearest Turkish pasha was always ready to bestow the 
Hungarian sceptre and crown on a rebel against Austria; 
just as ready was Austria to confirm to any adven- 
turer the possession of provinces which he had wrested 
from the Porte, satisfied with preserving thereby the 
shadow of authority, and with erecting at the same 



28 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

time a barrier against the Turks. In this way several of 
these magnates, Bathori, Boschkai, Ragoczi, and Bethlen, 
succeeded in establishing themselves, one after another, 
as tributary sovereigns in Transylvania and Hungary ; 
and they maintained their ground by no deeper policy 
than that of occasionally joining the enemy, in order to 
render themselves more formidable to their own prince. 

Ferdinand, Maximilian, and Rodolph, who were all 
sovereigns of Hungary and Transylvania, exhausted 
their other territories in endeavoring to defend these 
from the hostile inroads of the Turks, and to put down 
intestine rebellion. In this quarter destructive wars 
were succeeded but by brief truces, which were scarcely 
less hurtful : far and wide the land lay waste, while the 
injured serf had to complain equally of his enemy and 
his j^rotector. Into these countries also the Reformation 
had penetrated ; and protected by the freedom of the 
States, and under the cover of the internal disorders, 
had made a noticeable progress. Here, too, it was in- 
cautiously attacked, and party spirit thus became yet 
more dangerous from religious enthusiasm. Headed by 
a bold rebel, Boschkai, the nobles of Hungary and Tran- 
sylvania raised the standard of rebellion. The Hungarian 
insurgents were upon the point of making common cause 
with the discontented Protestants in Austria, Moravia, 
and Bohemia, and uniting all those countries in one 
fearful revolt. The downfall of popery in these lands 
would then have been inevitable. 

Long had the Austrian archdukes, the brothers of the 
Emperor, beheld with silent indignation the impending 
ruin of their house ; this last event hastened their deci- 
sion. The Archduke Matthias, Maximilian's second son. 
Viceroy in Hungary, and Rodolph's presumptive heir, 
now came forward as the stay of the falling house of 
Hapsburg. In his youth, misled by a false ambition, 
this prince, disregarding the interests of his family, had 
listened to the overtures of the Flemish insurgents, who 
invited him into the Netherlands to conduct the defence 
of their liberties against the oppression of his own 
relative, Philip II. Mistaking the voice of an insulated 
faction for that of the entire nation, Matthias obeyed the 



THE THIRTr YEARS' WAR. 29 

call. But the event answered the expectations of the 
men of Brabant as little as his own, and from this impru- 
dent enterprise he retired with little credit. 

Far more honorable was his second appearance in the 
political woi'ld. Perceiving that his repeated remon- 
strances with the Emperor were unavailing, he assembled 
the archdukes, his brothers and cousins, at Presburg, and 
consulted with them on the growing perils of their house, 
when they unanimously assigned to him, as the oldest, 
the duty of defending that patrimony which a feeble 
brother was endangering. In his hands they placed all 
their powers and rights, and vested him with sovereign 
authority to act at his discretion for the common good. 
Matthias immediately opened a communication with the 
Porte and the Hungarian rebels, and through his skilful 
management succeeded in saving by a peace with the 
Turks the remainder of Hungary, and, by a treaty 
with the rebels, preserved the claims of Austria to the 
lost provinces. But Rodolph, as jealous as he had 
hitherto been careless of his sovereign authority, refused 
to ratify this treaty, which he regarded as a criminal 
encroachment on his sovereign rights. He accused the 
Archduke of keeping up a secret understanding with the 
enemy, and of cherishing treasonable designs on the 
crown of Hungary. 

The activity of Matthias was, in truth, anything but 
disinterested ; the conduct of the Emperor only acceler- 
ated the execution of his ambitious views. Secure, from 
motives of gratitude, of the devotion of the Hungarians, 
for whom he had so lately obtained the blessings of peace ; 
assured by his agents of the favorable disposition of the 
nobles, and certain of the support of a large party even 
in Austria, he now ventured to assume a bolder attitude, 
and, sword in hand, to discuss his grievances with the 
Emperor. The Protestants in Austria and Moravia, long 
ripe for revolt, and now won over to the Archduke by his 
promises of toleration, loudly and openly espoused his 
cause, and their long-menaced alliance with the Hungarian 
rebels was actually effected. Almost at once aformid-, 
able conspiracy was planned and matured against the 
Emperor. Too late did he resolve to amend his past 



30 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 

errors; in vain did he attempt to break up this fatal 
alliance. Already the whole empire was in arms; 
Hungary, Austria, and Moravia had done homage to 
Mattliias, who was already on his march to Bohemia to 
seize the Emperor in his palace, and to cut at once the 
sinews of his power. 

Bohemia was not a more peaceable possession for 
Austria than Hungary ; with this difference only, that, in 
the latter, political considerations, in the former, religious 
dissensions, fomented disorders. In Bohemia, a century 
before the days of Luther, the first spark of the religious 
war had been kindled ; a century after Luther the first 
flames of tlie thirty years, war burst out in Bohemia. 
The sect which owed its rise to John Huss still existed 
in that country ; — it agreed with the Romish Church in 
ceremonies and doctrines, with the single exception of 
the administration of the Communion, in which ^ the 
Hussites communicated in both kinds. This privilege 
had been conceded to the followers of Huss by the 
Council of Basle in an express treaty (the Bohemian 
Compact) ; and though it was afterwards disavowed by 
the popes, they nevertheless continued to profit by it 
under the sanction of the government. As the use of the 
cup formed the only important distinction of their body, 
they were usually designated by the name of Utraquists ; 
and they readily adopted an appellation which reminded 
them of their dearly-valued privilege. But under this 
title lurked also the far stricter sects of the Bohemian 
and Moravian Brethren, who differed from the predomi- 
nant church in more important particulars, and bore, in 
fact, a great resemblance to the German Protestants. 
Among them both the German and Swiss opinions on 
religion made i-apid progress ; while the name of Utra- 
quists, under which they managed to disguise the change 
of their principles, shielded them from persecution. 

In truth, they had nothing in common with the Utra- 
quists but the name; essentially they were altogether 
Protestant. Confident in the strength of their party, and 
the Emperor's toleration under Maximilian, they had 
openly avowed their tenets. After the example of the 
Germans, they drew up a Confession of their own, in 



THE THIETY YEARS' WAR. 31 

which Lutherans as well as Calvinists recognized their 
own doctrines, and tbey sought to transfer to the new 
Confession the privileges of the original Utraquists. In 
this they were opposed by their Roman Catholic country- 
men, and forced to rest content with the Emperor's 
verbal assurance of protection. 

As long as Maximilian lived they enjoyed complete 
toleration, even under the new form they had taken. 
Under his successor the scene changed. An imperial 
edict appeared which deprived the Bohemian Brethren 
of their religious freedom. Now these differed in nothing 
from the other Utraquists. The sentence, therefore, of 
their condemnation obviously included all the partisans 
of the Bohemian Confession. Accordingly, they all 
combined to oppose the imperial mandate in the Diet, 
but without being able to procure its revocation. The 
Emperor and the Roman Catholic Estates took their 
ground on the Compact and the Bohemian Constitution ; 
in which nothing appeared in favor of a religion which 
had not then obtained the voice of the country. Since 
that time how completely had affairs changed ? What 
then formed but an inconsiderable opinion had now 
become the predominant religion of the country. And 
what was it then but a subterfuge to limit a newly- 
spreading religion by the terms of obsolete treaties? 
The Bohemian Protestants appealed to the verbal guar- 
antee of Maximilian, and the religious freedom of the 
Germans, with whom they argued they ought to be on a 
footing of equality. It was in vain — their appeal was 
dismissed. 

Such was the posture of affairs in Bohemia when 
Matthias, already master of Hungary, Austria, and 
Moravia, appeared in Blolin, to raise the Bohemian 
Estates also against the Emperor. The embarrassment 
of the latter was now at its height. Abandoned by all 
his other subjects, he placed his last hopes on the 
Bohemians, who, it might be foreseen, would take advan- 
tage of his necessities to enforce their own demands. 
After an interval of many years, he once more appeared 
publicly in the Diet at Prague ; and to convince the 
people that he was really still in existence, orders were 



32 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

given that all the windows should be opened in the 
streets through which he was to pass — proof enough 
how far things had gone with him. The event justified 
his fears. The Estates, conscious of their own power, 
refused to take a single stej) until their privileges were 
confirmed, and religious toleration fully assured to them. 
It was in vain to have recourse now to the old system of 
evasion. The Emperor's fate was in their hands, and he 
must yield to necessity. At present, however, he only 
granted their other demands — religious matters he 
reserved for consideration at the next Diet. 

The Bohemians now took up arms in defence of the 
Emperor, and a bloody war between the two brothers 
was on the point of breaking out. But Rodolph, who 
feared nothing so much as remaining in this slavish 
dependence on the Estates, waited not for a warlike 
issue, but hastened to effect a reconciliation with his 
brother by more peaceable means. By a formal act of 
abdication he resigned to Matthias, what indeed he had 
no chance of wresting from him, Austria and the kingdom 
of Hungary, and acknowledged him as his successor to 
the crown of Bohemia. 

Dearly enough had the Emperor extricated himself 
from one difficulty only to get immediately involved in 
another. The settlement of the religious affairs of 
Bohemia had been referred to the next Diet, which was 
held in 1609. The reformed Bohemians demanded the 
free exercise of their faith, as under the former emperors ; 
a Consistory of their own ; the cession of the University 
of Prague ; and the right of electing Defenders^ or 
Protectors of Liberty^ from their own body. The answer 
was the same as before ; for the timid Emperor was now 
entirely fettered by the unreformed party. However 
often, and in however threatening language the Estates 
renewed their remonstrances, the Emperor persisted in 
his first declaration of granting nothing beyond the old 
compact. The Diet broke up without coming to a de- 
cision ; and the Estates, exasperated against the Emperor, 
arranged a general meeting at Prague, upon their own 
authority, to right themselves. 

They appeared at Prague in great force. In defiance 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 33 

of the imperial prohibition they carried on their delibera- 
tions almost under the very eyes of the Emperor. The 
yielding compliance which he began to show only proved 
how much they were feared, and increased their audacity. 
Yet on the main point he remained inflexible. They 
fulfilled their threats, and at last resolved to establish, by 
their own power, the free and universal exercise of their 
religion, and to abandon the Emperor to his necessities 
until he should confirm this resolution. They even went 
farther, and elected for themselves the Defenders which 
the Emperor had refused them. Ten were nominated by 
each of the three Estates ; they also determined to raise, 
as soon as possible, an armed force, at the head of which 
Count Thurn, the chief organizer of the revolt, should be 
placed as general defender of the liberties of Bohemia. 
Their determination brought the Emperor to submission, 
to which he was now counselled even by the Spaniards, 
Apprehensive lest the exasperated Estates should throw 
themselves into the arms of the King of Hungary, he 
signed the memorable Letter of Majesty for Bohemia, by 
which, under the successors of the Emperor, that people 
justified their rebellion. 

The Bohemian Confession, which the States had laid 
before the Emperor Maximilian, was, by the Letter of 
Majesty, placed on a footing of equality with the olden 
profession. The Utraquists, for by this title the Bohe- 
mian Protestants continued to designate themselves, were 
put in possession of the University of Prague, and allowed 
a Consistory of their own entirely independent of the 
archiepiscopal see of that city. All the churches in tlie 
cities, villages, and market towns, which they held at the 
date of the letter, were secured to them; and if in 
addition they wished to erect others, it was permitted to 
the nobles, and knights, and the free cities to do so. 
This last clause in the Letter of Majesty gave rise to the 
unfortunate disputes which subsequently rekindled the 
flames of war in Europe. 

The Letter of Majesty erected the Protestant part of 
Bohemia into a kind of republic. The Estates had 
learned to feel the power which they gained by perse- 
verance, unity, and harmony in their measures. The 



34 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Emperor now retained little more than the shadow of 
his sovereign authority ; while by the new dignity of the 
so-called defenders of liberty a dangerous stimulus was 
given to the spii'it of revolt. The example and success 
of Bohemia afforded a tempting seduction to the other 
hereditary dominions of Austria, and all attempted by 
similar means to extort similar privileges. The spirit of 
liberty spread from one province to another ; and as it 
was chiefly the disunion among the Austrian princes that 
had enabled the Protestants so materially to improve 
their advantages, they now hastened to effect a reconcili- 
ation between the Emperor and the King of Hungary. 

But the reconciliation could not be sincere. The 
wrong was too great to be forgiven, and Eodolph con- 
tinued to nourish at heart an unextinguishable hatred of 
Matthias. With grief and indignation he brooded over the 
thought that the Bohemian sceptre was finally to descend 
into the hands of his enemy ; and the prospect was not 
more consoling, even if Matthias should die without 
issue. In that case, Ferdinand, Archduke of Gratz, whom 
he equally disliked, was the head of the family. To 
exclude the latter as well as Matthias from the succession 
to the throne of Bohemia, he fell upon the project of 
diverting that iuheritance to Ferdinand's brother, the 
Archduke Leopold, Bishop of Passau, who among all his 
relatives had ever been the dearest and most deserving. 
The prejudices of the Bohemians in favor of the elective 
freedom of their crown, and their attachment to Leo- 
pold's person, seemed to favor this scheme, in which 
Rodolph consulted rather his own partiality and vindictive- 
ness than the good of his house. But to carry out this 
project, a military force was requisite, and Rodolph 
actually assembled an army in the bishopric of Passau. 
The object of this force was hidden from all. An inroad, 
however, which, for want of pay, it made suddenly and 
without the Emperor's knowledge into Bohemia, and the 
outrages which it there committed, stirred up the whole 
kingdom against him. In vain he asserted his innocence 
to the Bohemian Estates ; they would not believe his pro- 
testations ; vainly did he attempt to restrain the violence 
of his soldiery ; they disregarded his orders. Persuaded 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 35 

that the Emperor's object was to annul the Letter of 
Majesty, the Protectors of Liberty armed the whole of 
Protestant Bohemia, and invited Matthias into the 
country. After the dispersion of the force he had 
collected at Passau, the Emperor remained helpless at 
Prague, where he was kept shut up like a prisoner in his 
palace, and separated from all his counsellors. In the 
meantime Matthias entered Prague amidst universal 
rejoicings, where Rodolph was soon afterwards weak 
enough to acknowledge him King of Bohemia. So hard 
a fate befell this Emperor ; he was compelled, during his 
life, to abdicate in favor of his enemy that very throne 
of which he had been endeavoring to deprive him after 
his own death. To complete his degradation he was 
obliged, by a personal act of renunciation, to release his 
subjects in Bohemia, Silesia, and Lusatia from their 
allegiance, and he did it with a broken heart. All, even 
those he thought he had most attached to his person, had 
abandoned him. When he had signed the instrument he 
threw his hat upon the ground, and gnawed the pen 
which had rendered so shameful a service. 

While Rodolph thus lost one hereditary dominion after 
another the imperial dignity was not much better main- 
tained by him. Each of the religious parties into which 
Germany was divided continued its efforts to advance 
itself at the expense of the other, or to guard against its 
attacks. The weaker the hand that held the sceptre, and 
tlie more the Protestants and Roman Catholics felt they 
were left to themselves, the more vigilant necessarily 
became their watchfulness, and the greater their distrust 
of each other. It was enough that the Emperor was 
ruled by Jesuits, and was guided by Spanish counsels, to 
excite the apprehension of the Protestants and to afford a 
pretext for hostility. The rash zeal of the Jesuits, which 
in the pulpit and by the press disputed the validity of the 
religious peace, increased this distrust, and caused their 
adversaries to see a dangerous design in the most indif- 
ferent measures of the Roman Catholics. Every step 
taken in the hereditary dominions of the Emperor for 
the repression of the reformed religion was sure to draw 
the attention of all the Protestants of Germany; and 



36 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

tnis powerful supjiort which the reformed subjects of 
Austi'ia met, or expected to meet with from their reli- 
gious confederates in the rest of Germany, was no small 
cause of their confidence and of the rapid success of 
Matthias. It was the general belief of the Empire that 
they owed the long enjoyment of the religious jJeace 
merely to the difiiculties in which the Emperor was 
placed by the internal troubles in his dominions ; and 
consequently they were in no haste to relieve him from 
them. 

Almost all the affairs of the Diet were neglected, either 
through the procrastination of the Emj^eror, or through 
the fault of the Protestant Estates, who had determined 
to make no provision for the common wants of the 
Empire till their own grievances were removed. These 
grievances related j^i'incipally to the misgovernment of 
the Emperor ; the violation of the religious treaty, and 
the presumptuous usurpations of the Aulic Council, 
which in the j^i'esent reign had begun to extend its 
jurisdiction at the expense of the Imperial Chamber. 
Formerly, in all disputes between the Estates, which 
could not be settled by club law, the Emperors had in 
the last resort decided of themselves, if the case were 
trifling, and in conjunction with the princes, if it were 
important; or they determined them by the advice of 
imperial judges who followed the court. This superior 
jurisdiction they had, in the end of the fifteenth century, 
assigned to a regular and permanent tribunal, the Im- 
perial Chamber of Spires, in which tlie Estates of the 
Empire, that they might not be oppressed by the arbi- 
trary appointment of the Emperor, had reserved to 
themselves the right of electing the assessors, and of 
periodically reviewing its decrees. By the religious 
peace, these rights of the Estates (called the rights of 

Eresentation and visitation), were extended also to the 
utherans, so that Protestant judges had a voice in Prot- 
estant causes, and a seeming equality obtained for both 
religions in this supreme tribunal. 

But the enemies of the Beformation and of the freedom 
of the Estates, vigilant to take advantage of every 
incident that favored their views, soon found means t(? 



THE THIHTY years' WAR. 37 

neutralize the beneficial effects of this institution. A 
supreme jurisdiction over the Imperial States was gradu- 
ally and skilfully usurped by a private imjDerial tribunal, 
the Aulic Council in Vienna, a court at first intended 
merely to advise the Emperor in the exercise of his 
undoubted, imperial, and personal prerogatives ; a court 
whose members, being appointed and paid by him, had no 
law but the interest of their master, and no standard 
of equity but the advancement of the unreformed i-eligion 
of which they were partisans. Before the Aulic Council 
were now brought several suits originating between 
Estates differing in religion, and which, therefore, prop- 
erly belonged to the Imperial Chamber. It was not 
surprising if the decrees of this tribunal bore traces of 
their orgin ; if the interests of the Roman Church and of 
the Emperor were preferred to justice by Roman Catholic 
judges, and the creatures of the Emperor. Although all 
the Estates of Germany seemed to have equal cause for 
resisting so perilous an abuse, the Protestants alone, who 
most sensibly felt it, and even these not all at once and in 
a body, came forward as the defenders of German liberty, 
which the establishment of so arbitrary a tribunal had 
outraged in its most sacred point, the adminstration of 
justice. In fact, Germany would have had little cause to 
congratulate itself upon the abolition of club law, and in 
the institution of the Imperial Chamber, if an arbitrary 
tribunal of the Emperor was allowed to interfere with the 
latter. The Estates of the German Empire would indeed 
have improved little upon the days of barbarism if the 
Chamber of Justice, in which they sat along with the 
Emperor as judges, and for which they had abandoned 
their original princely prerogative, should cease to be a 
court of the last resort. But the strangest contradictions 
were at this date to be found in the minds of men. The 
name of Emperor, a remnant of Roman despotism, was 
still associated with an idea of autocracy, which, though 
it formed a ridiculous inconsistency with the privileges of 
the Estates, was nevertheless argued for by jurists, 
diffused by the partisans of despotism, and believed by 
the ignorant. 
To these general grievances was gradually added ^ 



38 

chain of singular incidents, which at length converted 
the anxiety of the Protestants into utter distrust. During 
the Spanish persecutions in the Netherlands several 
Protestant families had taken refuge in Aix-la-Chapelle, 
an imperial city, and attached to the Roman Catholic 
faith, where they settled and insensibly extended their 
adherents. Having succeeded by stratagem in introducing 
some of their members into the municipal council, they 
demanded a church and the public exercise of their 
worship, and the demand being unfavorably received, 
they succeeded by violence in enforcing it, and also in 
usurping the entire government of the city. To see so 
important a city in Pi'otestant hands was too heavy a 
blow for the Emperor and the Roman Catholics. After 
all the Emperor's requests and commands for the restora- 
tion of the olden government had proved ineffectual, the 
Aulic Council proclaimed the city under the ban of the 
Empire, which, however, was not put in force till the 
following reign. 

Of yet greater importance were two other attempts of 
the Protestants to extend their influence and their power. 
The Elector Gebhai-d, of Cologne (born Truchsess* of 
Waldburg), conceived for the young Countess Agnes, of 
Mansfield, Canoness of Gerresheim, a passion which was 
not unreturned. As the eyes of all Germany were 
directed to this intercourse, the brothers of the Countess, 
two zealous Calvinists, demanded satisfaction for the 
injured honor of their house, which, as long as the Elector 
remained a Roman Catholic prelate, could not be repaired 
by marriage. Tliey threatened the Elector they would 
wash out this stain in his blood and their sister's unless 
he either abandoned all further connection with the 
Countess, or consented to re-establish her reputation at 
the altar. The Elector, indifferent to all the consequences 
of this step, listened to nothing but the voice of love. 
Whether it was in consequence of his previous inclination 
to the reformed doctrines, or that the charms of his 
mistress alone effected this wonder, he renounced the 
Roman Catholic faith, and led the beautiful Agnes to 
the altar. 

* Grand-master of the kitchen. 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 39 

This event was of the greatest importance. By the 
letter of the clause reserving the ecclesiastical states from 
the general operation of the religious peace, the Elector 
had, by his apostasy, forfeited all right to the tempora- 
lities of his bishopric ; and if, in any case, it was impor- 
tant for the Catholics to enforce the clause, it was so 
especially in the case of electorates. On the other hand, 
the relinquishment of so high a dignity was a severe 
sacrifice, and peculiarly so in the case of a tender husband, 
who had wished to enhance the value of his heart and 
hand by the gift of a principality. Moreover, the Reser- 
vatum Ecclesiasticum was a disputed article oi the treaty 
of Augsburg ; and all the German Protestants were aware 
of the extreme importance of wresting this fourth* 
electorate from the opponents of their faith. The ex- 
ample had already been set in several of the ecclesiastical 
benefices of Lower Germany, and attended with success. 
Several canons of Cologne had also already embraced the 
Protestant confession, and were on the Elector's side, 
while in the city itself he could depend upon the support 
of a numerous Protestant party. All these considera- 
tions, greatly strengthened by the persuasions of his 
friends and relations, and the promises of several German 
courts, determined the Elector to retain his dominions, 
while he changed his religion. 

But it was soon apparent that he had entered upon a 
contest which he could not carry through. Even the 
free toleration of the Protestant service within the ter- 
ritories of Cologne had already occasioned a violent 
opposition on the part of the canons and Roman Catholic 
Estates of that province. The intervention of the Em- 
peroi', and a papal ban from Rome, which anathematized 
the Elector as an apostate, and deprived him of all his 
dignities, temporal and spiritual, armed his own subjects 
and chapter against him. The Elector assembled a 
military force ; the chapter did the same. To insure also 
the aid of a strong arm, they proceeded fort with to a 
new election, and chose the Bishop of Liege, a prince of 
Bavaria. 

A civil war now commenced, which, from the strong 

* Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate were ali-eady Protestant. 



40 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

interest which both religious parties in Germany neces- 
sarily felt in the conjuncture, was likely to terminate in 
a general breaking up of the religious peace. What 
most made the Protestants indignant was that the Pope 
should have presumed, by a j^retended apostolic power, 
to deprive a prince of the empire of his imperial dignities. 
Even in the golden days of their sioiritual domination 
this prerogative of the Pope had been disputed ; how 
much more likely was it to be questioned at a period 
when his authority was entirely disowned by one party, 
while even with the other it rested on a tottering founda- 
tion. All the Protestant princes took up the affair 
warmly against the Emj^eror ; and Henry IV. of France, 
then King of Navarre, left no means of negotiation 
untried to urge the German princes to the vigorous 
assertion of their rights. The issue would decide for- 
ever the liberties of Germany. Four Protestant against 
three Roman Catholic voices in the Electoral College 
must at once have given the preponderance to the former, 
and forever excluded the House of Austria from the 
imperial throne. 

But the Elector Gebhard had embraced the Calvinist, 
not the Lutheran religion ; and this circumstance alone 
was his ruin. The mutual rancor of these two churches 
would not permit the Lutheran Estates to regard the 
Elector as one of their party, and as such to lend him 
their effectual support. All indeed had encouraged and 
promised him assistance ; but only one appanaged prince 
of the Palatine House, the Palsgrave John Casimir, a 
zealous Calvinist, kept his word. Despite of the imperial 
prohibition he hastened with his little army into the 
territories of Cologne ; but without being able to effect 
anything, because the Elector, who was destitute even 
of the first necessaries, left him totally without help. So 
much the more rapid was the progress of the newly-chosen 
elector, whom his Bavarian relations and the Spaniards 
from the Netherlands supported with the utmost vigor. 
The troops of Gebhard, left by their master without pay, 
abandoned one place after another to the enemy; by 
whom others were compelled to surrender. In his West 
phalian territories Gebhard held out for some time longer, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 41 

till here, too, he was at last obliged to yield to superior 
force. After several vain attempts in Holland and 
England to obtain means for his restoration, he retired 
into the Chapter of Strasburg, and died dean of that 
cathedral ; the first sacrifice to the Ecclesiastical Reser- 
vation, or rather to the want of harmony among the 
German Protestants. 

To this dispute in Cologne was soon added another in 
Strasburg. Several Protestant canons of Cologne, who 
had been included in the same papal ban with the Elector, 
had taken refuge within this bishopric, where they like- 
wise held prebends. As the Roman Catholic canons of 
Strasburg liesitated to allow them, as being under the 
ban, the enjoyment of their prebends, they took violent 
possession of their benefices, and the support of a power- 
ful Protestant party among the citizens soon gave them 
the preponderance in the chaj^ter. The other canons there- 
upon retired to Alsace-Saverne, where, under the protec- 
tion of the bishop, they established themselves as the only 
lawful chapter, and denounced that which remained in 
Strasburg as illegal. The latter, in the meantime, had so 
strengthened themselves by the reception of several Prot- 
estant colleagues of high rank that they could venture, 
upon the death of the bishop, to nominate a new Protes- 
tant bishop in the person of John George of Brandenburg. 
The Roman Catholic canons, far from allowing this 
election, nominated the Bishop of Metz, a prince of Lor- 
raine, to that dignity, who announced his promotion by 
immediately commencing hostilities against the territories 
of Strasburg. 

That city now took up arms in defence of its Protestant 
chapter and the Prince of Brandendurg, while the other 
party, with the assistance of the troops of Lorraine, 
endeavored to possess themselves of the temporalities of 
the chapter. A tedious war was the consequence, which, 
according to the spirit of the times, was attended with 
barbarous devastations. In vain did the Emperor inter- 
pose with his supreme authority to terminate the dispute ; 
the ecclesiastical property remained for a long time 
divided between the two j^arties, till at last the Protestant 
prince, for a moderate pecuniary equivalent, renounced 



42 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

his claims ; and thus, in this dispute also, the Roman 
Church came off victorious. 

An occurrence which, soon after the adjustment of this 
dispute, took place in Donauwerth, a free city of Suabia, 
was still more critical for the whole of Protestant Ger- 
many. In this once Roman Catholic city the Protestants, 
during the reigns of Ferdinand and his son, had, in the 
usual way, become so completely predominant that the 
Roman Catholics were obliged to content themselves with 
a church in the monastery of the Holy Cross, and, for 
fear of offending the Protestants, were even forced to 
suppress the greater part of their religious rites. At 
length a fanatical abbot of this monastery ventured to 
defy the popular prejudices, and to arrange a public 
procession, preceded by the cross and banners flying; 
but he was soon compelled to desist from the attempt. 
When, a year afterwards, encouraged by a favorable 
imperial proclamation, the same abbot attempted to renew 
this procession, the citizens proceeded to open violence. 
The inhabitants shut the gates against the monks on 
their return, trampled their colors under foot, and followed 
them home with clamor and abuse. An imperial citation 
was the consequence of this act of violence ; and as the 
exasperated populace even threatened to assault the 
imperial commissaries, and all attempts at an amicable 
adjustment were frustrated by the fanaticism of the 
multitude, the city was at last formally placed under the 
ban of the Empire, the execution of which was entrusted 
to Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. The citizens, formerly 
so insolent, were seized Avith terror at the approach of 
the Bavarian army; pusillanimity now possessed them, 
though once so full of defiance, and they laid down their 
arms withoixt striking a blow. . The total abolition of the 
Protestant religion within the walls of the city was the 
punishment of their rebellion ; it was deprived of its 
privileges, and, from a free city of Suabia, converted into 
a municipal town of Bavaria. 

Two circumstances connected with this proceeding 
must have strongly excited the attention of the Protes- 
tants, even if the interests of religion had been less 
powerful on their minds. First of all- the sentence had 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 43 

been pronounced by the Aulic Council, an arbitrary and 
exclusively Roman Catholic tribunal, whose jurisdiction 
besides had been so warmly disputed by them; and 
secondly, its execution had been entrusted to the Duke of 
Bavaria, the head of another circle. These unconstitu- 
tional steps seemed to be the harbingers of further violent 
measures on the Roman Catholic side, the result, prob- 
ably, of secret conferences and dangerous designs, which 
might perhaps end in the entire subversion of their 
religious liberty. 

In circumstances where the law of force prevails, and 
security depends upon power alone, the weakest party is 
naturally the most busy to place itself in a posture of 
defence. This was now the case in Germany. If the 
Roman Catholics really meditated any evil against the 
Protestants in Germany, the probability was that the 
blow would fall on the south rather than the north, 
because, in Lower Germany, the Protestants were con- 
nected through a long unbroken tract of country, and 
sould therefore easily combine for their mutual support; 
while those in the south, detached from each other, and 
surrounded on all sides by Roman Catholic states, were 
exposed to every inroad. If, moreover, as was to be 
expected, the Catholics availed themselves of the divis- 
ions amongst the Protestants, and levelled their attack 
against one of the religious parties, it was the Calvinists, 
who as the weaker, and as being besides excluded from 
the religious treaty, Avere apparently in the greatest 
danger, and upon them would probably fall the first 
attack. 

Both these circumstances took place in the dominion? 
of the Elector Palatine, which possessed, in the Duke oi 
Bavaria, a formidable neighbor, and which, by reason of 
their defection to Calvinism, received no protection from 
the Religious Peace, and had little hope of succor from 
the Lutheran states. No country in Germany had expe- 
rienced so many revolutions in religion in such a short 
time as the Palatinate. In the space of sixty years this 
country, an unfortunate toy in the hands of its rulers, had 
twice adopted the doctrines of Luther, and twice relin- 
quished them for Calvinism. The Elector Frederick IIL 



44 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

first abandoned the confession of Augsburg, which his 
eldest son and successor, Lewis, immediately re-estab- 
lished. The Calvinists throughout the whole country were 
deprived of their churches, their preachers and even their 
teachers banished beyond the frontiers ; while the prince, 
in his Lutheran zeal, persecuted them even in his will, 
by appointing none but strict and orthodox Lutherans as 
the guardians of his son, a minor. But this illegal testa- 
ment was disregarded by his brother, the Count Palatine, 
John Casimir, who, by the regulations of the Golden 
Bull, assumed the guardianship and administration of the 
state. Calvinistic teachers were given to the Elector 
Frederick IV., then only nine years of age, who were 
ordered, if necessary, to drive the Lutheran heresy out 
of the soul of their pupil with blows. If such was the 
treatment of the sovereign, that of the subjects may be 
easily conceived. 

It was under this Frederick that the Palatine Court 
exerted itself so vigorously to unite the Protestant states 
of Germany in joint measures against the House of 
Austria, and, if possible, bring about the formation of a 
general confederacy. Besides that this court had always 
been guided by the counsels of France, with whom hatred 
of the House of Austria was the ruling principle, a regard 
for his own safety ui'ged him to secure in time the doubt- 
ful assistance of the Lutherans against a near and over- 
whelming enemy. Great difficulties, however, opposed 
this union, because the Lutherans' dislike of the Reformed 
was scarcely less than the common aversion of both to 
the Romanists. An attempt was first made to reconcile 
the two professions, in order to facilitate a political union ; 
but all these attempts failed and generally ended in both 
parties adhering the more strongly to their respective opin- 
ions. Nothing then remained but to increase tlie fear 
and the distrust of the Evangelicals, and in tliis way to 
impress upon them the necessity of this alliance. The 
power of the Roman Catholics and the magnitude of the 
danger were exaggerated, accidental incidents were 
ascribed to deliberate plans, innocent actions misrepre- 
sented by invidious constructions, and the whole conduct 
"\f the professors of the olden religion was interpreted as 



THE THiitir years' WAR. 45 

the result of a well-weighed and systematic plan, which, 
in all probability, they were very far from having con- 
certed. 

The Diet of Ratisbon, to which the Protestants had 
looked forward with the hope of obtaining a renewal of 
the Religious Peace, had broken up without coming to a 
decision, and to the former grievances of the Protestant 
party was now added the late oppression of Donauwerth. 
With incredible speed the union, so long attempted, was 
now brought to bear. A conference took place at 
Anhausen, in Franconia, at which were present the 
Elector Frederick IV,, from the Palatinate, the Palsgrave 
of Neuburg, two Margraves of Brandenburg, tlie Mar- 
grave of Baden, and the Duke John Frederick of Wir- 
temburg, — Lutherans as well as Calvinists, — who for 
themselves and their heirs entered into a close confed- 
eracy under the title of the Evangelical Union. The 
purport of this union was, that the allied princes should, 
in all matters relating to religion and their civil rights, 
support each other with arms and counsel against every 
aggressor, and should all stand as one man ; that in case 
any member of the alliance should be attacked, he should 
be assisted by the rest with an armed force ; that, if 
necessary, the territories, towns, and castles of the allied 
states should be open to his troops ; and that whatever 
conquests were made should be divided among all the 
confederates, in proportion to the contingent furnished 
by each. 

The direction of the whole confederacy in time of peace 
was conferred upon the Elector Palatine, but with a limit- 
ed power. To meet the necessary expenses, sudsidies 
were demanded, and a common fund established. Differ- 
ences of religion ( betwixt the Lutherans and the Calvin- 
ists) were to have no effect on this alliance, which was to 
subsist for ten years, every member of the union engaged 
at the same time to procure new members to it. The 
Electorate of Brandenburg adopted the alliance, that of 
Saxony rejected it. Hesse-Cashel could not be prevailed 
upon to declare itself, the Dukes of Brunswick and Lune- 
burg also hesitated. But the three cities of the Empire, 
Strasburg, Nuremburg, and Ulm, were no unimportant 



46 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

acquisition for the League, which was in great want of their 
money, while their example, besides, might be followed by 
other imperial cities. 

After the formation of this alliance, the confederate 
states, dispirited and, singly, little feared, adopted a bolder 
language. Through Prince Christian of Anhalt they laid 
their common grievances and demands before the Em- 
peror; among which the principal w^ere the restoration of 
Donauwerth, the abolition of the Imperial Court, the refor- 
mation of the Empero]-'s own administration and that of 
his counsellors. For these remonstrances, they chose the 
moment when the Emperor had scarcely recovered breath 
from the troubles in his hereditary dominions, — when he 
had lost Hungary and Austria to Matthias, and had barely 
preserved his Bohemian throne by the concession of tlie 
Letter of Majesty, and finally, when through the succes- 
sion of Juliers he was already threatened with the distant 
prospect of a new war. No wonder, then, that this dila- 
torj' prince was more irresolute than ever in his decision, 
and that the confederates took up arms before he could 
bethink himself. 

The Roman Catholics regarded this confederacy with 
a jealous eye ; the Union viewed them and the Emperor 
with the like distrust ; the Emperor was equally suspicious 
of both ; and thus, on all sides, alarm and animosity had 
reached their climax. And, as if to crown the whole, at 
this critical conjuncture, by the death of the Duke John 
William of Juliers, a highly disputable succession became 
vacant in the territories of Juliers and Cleves. 

Eight competitors laid claim to this territory, the indi- 
visibility of which had been guaranteed by solemn treaties ; 
and the Emperor, who seemed disposed to enter upon it as 
a vacant fief, might be considered as the ninth. Four of 
these, the Elector of Brandenburg, the Count Palatine of 
Neuburg, the Count Palatine of Deux Ponts, and the Mar- 
grave of Bergau, an Austrian prince, claimed it as a female 
fief in name of four princesses, sisters of the late duke. 
Two others, the Elector of Saxony, of the line of Albert, 
and the Duke of Saxony, of the line of Ernest, laid claim 
to it under a prior right of reversion granted to them by 
the Emperor Frederick JU., and confirmed to both Saxon 



I 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 47 

houses by Maximilian I. The pretensions of some foreign 
princes were little regarded. The best right was perhaj)S 
on the side of Brandenburg and Neuberg, and between 
the claims of the two it was not easy to decide. Both 
courts, as soon as the succession was vacant, proceeded to 
take possession ; Brandenburg beginning, and Neuberg 
following the example. Both commenced their dis2:)ute 
with the pen, and would probably have ended it with the 
sword : but the interference of the Emperor, by proceed- 
ing to bring the cause before his own cognizance, and, 
during the progress of the suit, sequestrating the disputed 
countries, soon brought the contending parties to an agree- 
ment, in order to avert the common danger. They agreed 
to govern the duchy conjointly. In vain did the Emperor 
prohibit the Estates from doing homage to their new mas- 
ters ; in vain did he send his own relation, the Archduke 
Leopold, Bishop of Passau and Strasburg, into the terri- 
tory of Juliers, in order, by his presence, to strengthen the 
imperial party. The whole country, with the exception of 
Juliers itself, had submitted to the Protestant princes, and 
in that capital the imj)erialists were besieged. 

The dispute about the succession of Juliers was an im- 
portant one to the whole German Empire, and also at- 
tracted the attention of several European courts. It was 
not so much the question, who was or was not to possess 
the Duchy of Juliers; — the real question was, which of 
the two religious parties in Germany, the Roman Catholic 
or the Protestant, was to be strengthened by so important 
an accession — for which of the two religions this terri- 
tory was to be lost or won. The question in short was, 
whether Austria was to be allowed to persevere in her 
Hsui'pations, and to gratify her lust of dominion by another 
robbery ; or whether the liberties of Germany, and the 
balance of power, were to be maintained against her en- 
croachments. The disputed succession of Juliers, there- 
fore, was matter which interested all who were favorable 
to liberty and hostile to Austria. The Evangelical Union, 
Holland, England, and particularly Henry IV. of France 
were drawn into the strife. 

This monarch, the flower of Avhose life had been spent 
in opposing the House of Austria and Spain, and by per- 



48 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

severing heroism alone had surmounted the obstacles 
which this liouse had thrown between him and the French 
throne, had been no idle sj)ectator of the troubles in Ger- 
many. This contest of the Estates with the Emperor was 
the means of giving and securing peace to France. The 
Protestants and the Turks were the two salutary weights 
which kept down the Austrian power in the East and 
West : but it would rise again in all its terrors, if once it 
were allowed to remove this pressure. Henry IV. had 
before his eyes for half a lifetime the uninterrupted spec- 
tacle of Austrian ambition and Austrian lust of domin- 
ion, which neither adversity nor j)overty of talents, though 
generally they check all human jjassions, could extinguish 
in a bosom wherein flowed one drop of the blood of 
Ferdinand of Arragon. Austrian ambition had destroyed 
for a century the peace of Europe, and effected the 
most violent changes in the heart of its most considerable 
states. It had deprived the fields of husbandmen, the 
workshops of artisans, to fill the land with enormous 
armies, and to cover the commercial sea with hostile fleets. 
It had imposed upon the princes of Europe the necessity 
of fettering the industry of their subjects by vmheard-of 
imposts ; and of wasting in self-defence the best strength 
of their states, which was thus lost to the prosperity o£ 
their inhabitants. For Europe there was no peace, for its 
states no welfare, for the peoi^le's happiness no security 
or j^ermanence, so long as this dangerous house was per- 
mitted to disturb at pleasure the repose of the world. 

Such considerations clouded the mind of Henry at the 
close of his glorious career. What had it not cost him to 
reduce to order the troubled chaos into which France had 
been plunged by the tumult of civil war, fomented and 
supported by this very Austria ! Every great mind labors 
for eternity ; and what security had Henry for the endur- 
ance of that prosperity, which he had gained for France, 
so long as Austria and Spain formed a single power, 
which did indeed lie exhausted for the present, but which 
required only one lucky chance to be speedily reunited, 
and to spring up again as formidable as ever. If he would 
bequeath to his successors a firmly established throne, and 
a durable prosperity to his subjects, this dangerous jDower 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 49 

must be forever disarmed. This was the source of that 
irreconcilable enmity which Hemy had sworn to the 
House of Austria, a hatred unextinguishable, ardent, and 
well-founded as that of Hannibal against the people of 
Romulus, but ennobled by a purer origin. 

The other Euroj)ean powers had the same inducements 
to action as Henry, but all of them had not that enlight- 
ened policy, nor that disinterested courage to act upon 
the impulse. All men, without distinction, are allured by 
immediate advantages ; great minds alone are excited by 
distant good. So long as wisdom in its projects calculates 
upon wisdom, or relies upon its own strength, it forms 
none but chimerical schemes, and runs a risk of making 
itself the laughter of the world ; but it is certain of suc- 
cess, and may reckon upon aid and admiration when it 
finds a place in its intellectual plans for barbarism, rapac- 
ity, and superstition, and can render the selfish passions 
of mankind the executors of its purposes. 

In the first point of view, Henry's well-known project 
of expelling the House of Austria from all its possessions, 
and dividing the spoil among the European powers, de- 
serves the title of a chimera, which men have so liberally 
bestowed upon it ; but did it merit that appellation in the 
second? It had never entered into the head of that excel- 
lent monarch, in the choice of those who must be the 
instruments of his designs, to reckon on the sufficiency of 
such motives as animated himself and Sully to the enter- 
prise. All the states whose co-operation was necessary 
were to be persuaded to the work by the strongest motives 
that can set a political power in action. From the Prot- 
estants in Germany nothing more was required than that 
which, on other grounds, had been long their object, 
— their throwing off the Austrian yoke ; from the Flem- 
ings, a similar revolt from the Spaniards. To the Pope 
and all the Italian republics no inducement could be more 
powerful than the hope of driving the Spaniards forever 
from their peninsula; for England, nothing more desirable 
than a revolution which should free it from its bitterest 
enemy. By this division of the Austrian conquests every 
power gained either land or freedom, new possessions or 
security for the old ; and, as all gained, the balance o£ 



50 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

power remained undisturbed. France -rniglit magnani- 
mously decline a share in the spoil, because by the ruin 
of Austria it doubly profited, and was most powerful if 
it did not become more powerful. Finally, upon condi- 
tion of ridding Europe of their presence, the posterity of 
Hapsburg were to be allowed the liberty of augmenting 
her territories in all the other known or yet undiscovered 
portions of the globe. But tlie dagger of Ravaillac deliv- 
ered Austria from her danger, to ijostjione for some cen- 
turies longer the tranquillity of Europe. 

With his view directed to this project, Henry felt the 
necessity of taking a j^rompt and active part in the impor- 
tant events of the Evangelical Union, and the disputed 
succession of Juliers. His emissaries were busy in all the 
courts of Germany, and tlie little which they published or 
allowed to escape of the great political secrets of their 
master was sufficient to win over minds inflamed by so 
ardent a hatred to Austria, and by so strong a desire of 
aggrandizement. The prudent policy of Henry cemented 
the Union still more closely, and the powerful aid which 
he bound himself to furnish raised the courage of the 
confederates into the firmest confidence. A numerous 
French army, led by the king in person, was to meet the 
troops of the Union on the banks of the Rhine, and to 
assist in effecting the conquest of Juliers and Cleves; 
then, in conjunction with the Germans, it was to march 
into Italy (where Savoy, Venice, and the Pope were even 
now ready with a powerful reinforcement), and to over- 
throw the Spanish dominion in that quarter. This victo- 
rious army was then to penetrate by Lombardy into the 
hereditary dominions of Hapsburg; and there, favored 
by a genei-al insurrection of the Protestants, destroy the 
power of Austria in all its German territories, in Bohemia, 
Hungary, and Transylvania. The Brabanters and Hol- 
landers, sui^ported by French auxiliaries, would in the 
meantime shake off the Spanish tyranny in the Nether- 
lands, and thus the mighty stream whicli, only a short time 
before, had so fearfully overflowed its banks, threatening to 
overwhelm in its troubled waters the liberties of Europe, 
"would then roll silent and forgotten behind the Pyrenean 
mountains. 



THE THIRTY YEAES* WAR. 61 

At other times the French had boasted of their rapidity 
of action, but upon this occasion they were outstripped 
by the Germans. An army of the confederates entered 
Alsace before Henry made his appearance there, and an 
Austrian army, which the Bishop of Strasburg and Passau 
had assembled in that quarter for an expedition against 
Juliers, was dispersed. Henry IV. had formed his plan 
as a statesman and a king, but he had intrusted its execu- 
tion to plunderers. According to his design, no Roman 
Catholic state was to have cause to think this preparation 
aimed against itself, or to make the quarrel of Austria its 
own. Religion was in nowise to be mixed up F'ith the 
matter. But how could the German princes forget their 
own purposes in furthering the plans of Henry ? Actuated 
as they were by the desire of aggrandizement and by 
religious hatred, was it to be supposed that they would 
not gratify, in every passing opportunity, their ruling pas- 
sions to the utmost? Like vultures, they stooped upon 
the territories of the ecclesiastical princes, and always 
chose those rich countries for their quarters, though to 
reach them they must make ever so wide a detour from 
their direct route. They levied contributions as in an 
enemy's country, seized upon the revenues, and exacted 
by violence what they could not obtain of free-will. Not 
to leave the Roman Catholics in doubt as to the true 
objects of their expedition, they announced, openly and 
intelligibly enough, the fate that awaited the property of 
the church. So little had Henry IV. and the German 
prmces understood each other in their plan of operations, 
so much had the excellent king been mistaken in his instru- 
ments . It is an unfailing maxim, that, if policy enjoins 
an act of violence, its execution ought never to be entrust- 
ed to the violent ; and that he only ought to be trusted 
with the violation of order by whom order is held sacred. 
Both the past conduct of the Union, which was con- 
demned even by several of the evangelical states, and the 
apprehension of even worse treatment, aroused the Roman 
Catholics to something beyond mere inactive indignation, 
i^ to the Emperor, his authority had sunk too low to 
afford them any security against such an enemy. It was 
their Union that rendered the confederates so formidable 



52 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

and so insolent ; and another union must now be opposed 
to them. 

The Bishop of Wurtzburg formed the plan of the Cath- 
olic Union, which was distinguished from the evangelical 
by the title of the League. The objects agreed upon 
were nearly the same as those which constituted the 
groundwork of the Union. Bishops formed its principal 
members, and at its head was jjlaced Maximilian, Duke of 
Bavaria. As the only influential secular member of the 
confederacy, he was entrusted with far more extensive 
powers than the Protestants had committed to their chief. 
In addition to the Duke's being the sole head of the 
League's military power, whereby their operations ac- 
quired a speed and weight unattainable by the Union, 
they had also the advantage that sujd plies flowed in much 
more regularly from the rich prelates, than the latter 
could obtain them from the poor evangelical states. 
Without offering to the Emperor, as the sovereign of a 
Roman Catholic state, any share in their confederacy, 
without ever communicating its existence to him as 
Emperor, the League arose at once formidable and 
threatening ; with strength sufiicient to crush the Protest- 
ant Union and to maintain itself under three emperors. 
It contended, indeed, for Austria, in so far as it fought 
against the Protestant princes ; but Austria herself had 
soon cause to tremble before it. 

The arms of the Union had, in the meantime, been 
tolerably successful in Juliers and in Alsace ; Juliers was 
closely blockaded, and the whole bishopric of Strasburg 
was in their power. But here their splendid achieve- 
ments came to an end. No French army appeared 
upon the Rhine ; for he who was to be its leader, he who 
was the animating soul of the whole enterprise, Henry 
IV., was no moi-e ! Their supplies were on the wane ; the 
Estates refused to grant new subsidies ; and the confeder- 
ate free cities were offended that their money should 
be liberally, but their advice so sparingly called for. 
Especially were they displeased at being put to expense 
for the expedition against Juliers, Avhich had been 
expressly excluded from the affairs of the Union — at the 
united princes appropriating to themselves large pensions 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 53 

out of the common treasure — and, above all, at tLeii 
refusing to give any account of its expenditure. 

The Union was thus verging to its fall at the moment 
when the League started to oppose it in the vigor of its 
strength. Want of supplies disabled the confederates 
from any longer keeping the field. And yet it was 
dangerous to lay down their weapons in the sight of an 
armed enemy. To secure themselves at least on one side 
they hastened to conclude a peace with their old enemy, 
the Archduke Leopold ; and both parties agreed to with- 
draw their troops from Alsace, to exchange prisoners, 
and to bury all that had been done in oblivion. Thus 
ended in nothing all these promising preparations. _ 

The same imperious tone with which the Union, in the 
confidence of its strength, had menaced the Roman Cath- 
olics of Germany, was now retorted by the League upon 
themselves and their troops. The traces of their march 
were pointed out to them, and plainly branded with the 
hard epithets they had deserved. The chapters of 
Wurtzburg, Bamberg, Strasburg, Mentz, Treves, Cologne, 
and several others, had experienced their destructive 
presence ; to all these the damage done was to be made 
good, the free passage by land and by water restored 
(for the Protestants had even seized on the navigation of 
the Rhine), and everything replaced on its former footing. 
Above all, the parties to the Union were called on to 
declare expressly and iinequivocally its intentions. It 
was now their turn to yield to superior strength. They 
had not calculated on so formidable an opponent; but 
they themselves had taught the Roman Catholics the 
secret of their strength. It was humiliating to their pride 
to sue for peace, but they might think themselves for- 
tunate in obtaining it. The one party promised restitu- 
tion, the other forgiveness. All laid down their arms. 
The storm of war once more rolled by, and a temporary 
calm succeeded. The insurrection in Bohemia then broke 
out, which deprived the Emperor of the last of his hered- 
itary dominions, but in this dispute neither the Union nor 
the League took any share. 

At length the Emperor died, in 1612, as little regretted 
in his coffin as noticed on the throne. Long afterwards^ 



54 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

when the miseries of succeeding reigns had made the 
misfortunes of his reign forgotten, a halo spread about 
his memory, and so fearful a night set in upon Germany 
that, with tears of blood, people prayed for the return of 
such an emperor. 

Rodolph never could be prevailed upon to choose a 
successor in the Empire, and all awaited with anxiety the 
approaching vacancy of the throne ; but, beyond all 
hope, Matthias at once ascended it, and without oppo- 
sition. The Roman Catholics gave him their voices, 
because they hoped the best from his vigor and activity ; 
the Protestants gave him theirs, because they hoped 
everything from his weakness. It was not difficult to 
reconcile this contradiction. The one relied on what he 
had once appeared; the other judged him by what he 
seemed at present. 

The moment of a new accession is always a day of 
hope ; and the first Diet of a king in elective monarchies 
is usually his severest trial. Every old grievance is 
brought forward, and new ones are sought out, that they 
may be included in the expected reform ; quite a new 
world is expected to commence with the new reign. The 
important services which, in his insurrection, their relig- 
ious confederates in Austria had rendered to Matthias, 
were still fresh in the minds of the Protestant free cities, 
and, above all, the price which they had exacted for their 
services seemed now to serve them also as a model. 

It was by the favor of the Protestant Estates in 
Austria and Moravia that Matthias had sought and really 
found the way to his brother's throne ; but, hurried on 
by his ambitious views, he never reflected that a way was 
thus opened for the States to give laws to their sovereign. 
This discoveiy soon awoke him from the intoxication of 
success. Scarcely had he shown himself in triumph to 
his Austrian subjects, after his victorious expedition to 
Bohemia, when an humble petition awaited him which was 
quite sufficient to poison his Avhole triumph. They 
required, before doing homage, unlimited religious toler- 
ation in the cities and market towns, perfect equality of 
rights between Roman Catholics and Protestants, and a 
^11 and equal admissibility of the latter to all offices of 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 55 

state In several places they of themselves assumed 
these privileges, and, reckoning on a change of adminis- 
tration, restored the Protestant religion where the late 
Emperor had suppressed it. Matthias, it is true, had not 
scrupled to make use of the grievances of the Protestants 
for his own ends against the Emperor ; but it was far 
from being his intention to relieve them. By a firm and 
resolute tone he hoped to check at once these presump- 
tuous demands. He spoke of his hereditary title to these 
territories, and would hear of no stipulations before the 
act of homage. A like unconditional submission had 
been rendered by their neighbors, the inhabitants of 
Styria, to the Archduke Ferdinand, who, however, had 
soon reason to repent of it. Warned by this example, 
the Austrian States persisted in their refusal; and, to 
avoid being compelled by force to do homage, their 
deputies (after urging their Roman Catholic colleagues 
to a similar resistance) immediately left the capital, and 
began to levy troops. 

They took steps to renew their old alliance with 
Hungary, drew the Protestant princes into their interests, 
and set themselves seriously to work to accomplish their 
object by force of arms. 

With the more exorbitant demands of the Hungarians 
Matthias had not hesitated to comply. For Hungary 
was an elective monarchy, and the republican constitution 
of the country justified to himself their demands, and to 
the Roman Catholic world his concessions. In Austria, 
on the contrary, his predecessors had exercised far 
higher prerogatives, which he could not relinquish at the 
demand of the Estates without incurring the scorn of 
Roman Catholic Europe, the enmity of Spain and Rome, 
and the contempt of his own Roman Catholic subjectSo 
His exclusively Romish council, among which the Bishop 
of Vienna, Melchio Kiesel, had the chief influence, 
exhorted hira to see all the churches extorted from him 
by the Protestants rather than to concede one to them 
as a matter of right. 

But by ill luck this difficulty occurred at a time when 
the Emperor Rodolph was yet alive and a spectator of 
this scene, and who might easily have been tempted to 



56 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

employ against his brother the same weapons which the 
latter had successfully directed against him — namely, an 
understanding with his rebellious subjects. To avoid 
this blow, Matthias willingly availed himself of the offer 
made by Moravia, to act as mediator between him and 
the Estates of Austria. Representatives of both parties 
met in Vienna, when the Austrian deputies held language 
which would have excited surprise even in the English 
Parliament. " The Protestants," they said, " are deter- 
mined to be not worse treated in their native country 
than the handful of Romanists. By the help of his 
Protestant nobles had Matthias reduced the Emperor to 
submission ; where eighty Papists were to be found three 
hundred Protestant barons might be counted. The ex- 
ample of Rodolph should be a warning to Matthias. He 
should take care that he did not lose the terrestrial in at- 
tempting to make conquests for the celestial." As the 
Moravian States, instead of using their powers as mediators 
for the Emperor's advantage, finally adopted the cause of 
their co-religionists of Austria ; as the UTnion in Germany 
came forward to afford them its most active support, and 
as Matthias dreaded reprisals on the part of the Emperor, 
he was at length compelled to make the desired declara^ 
tion in favor of the Evangelical Church. 

This behavior of the Austrian Estates towards their 
Archduke was now imitated by the Protestant Estates 
of the Empire towards their Emperor, and they promised 
themselves the same favorable results. At his first Diet 
at Ratisbon, in 1613, when the most pressing affairs were 
waiting for decision — when a general contribution was in- 
dispensable for a war against Turkey, and against Bethlem 
Gabor in Transylvania, who by Turkish aid had forcibly 
usurped the sovereignty of that land, and even threatened 
Hungary — they surprised him with an entirely new de- 
mand. The Roman Catholic votes were still the most numer- 
ous in the Diet ; and as everything was decided by a plural- 
ity of voices, the Protectant party, however closely united, 
were entirely without consideration. The advantage of 
this majority the Roman Catholics were now called on to 
relinquish; henceforward no one religious party was to 
be permitted to dictate to the other by means of its 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 57 

invariable superiority. And, in truth, if the evangelical 
religion was really to be represented in the Diet, it was 
self-evident that it must not be shut out from the possi- 
bility of making use of that privilege, merely from the 
constitution of the Diet itself. Complaints of the judi- 
cial usurpations of the Aulic Council, and of the oppres- 
sion of the Protestants, accompanied this demand, and 
the deputies of the Estates were instructed to take no 
part in any general deliberations till a favorable answer 
should be given on this preliminary point. 

The Diet was torn asunder by this dangerous division, 
which threatened to destroy forever the unity of its de- 
liberations. Sincerely as the Emperor might have wished, 
after the example of his father, Maximilian, to preserve a 
prudent balance between the two religions, the present 
conduct of the Protestants seemed to leave him nothino- 
but a critical choice between the two. In his present 
necessities a general contribution from the Estates was 
indispensable to him ; and yet he could not conciliate the 
one party without sacrificing the support of the other. 
Insecure as he felt his situation to be in his own heredi- 
tary dominions, he could not but tremble at the idea, 
however remote, of an open Avar with the Protestants. 
But the eyes of the whole Roman Catholic world, which 
were attentively regarding his conduct, the remonstrances 
of the Roman Catholic Estates, and of the Courts of Rome 
and Spain, as little permitted him to favor the Protestant 
at the expense of the Romish religion. 

So critical a situation would have paralyzed a greater 
mind than Matthias ; and his own prudence would scarcely 
have extricated him from his dilemma. But the interests 
of the Roman Catholics were closely interwoven with the 
miperial authority; if they suffered this to fall the 
ecclesiastical princes in particular would be without a 
bulwark against the attacks of the Protestants. Now, 
then, thatthey saw the Emperor wavering, they thought 
It high time to reassure his sinking courage. They 
imparted to him the secret of their League, and ac- 
quainted him with its whole constitution, resources, and 
power. Little comforting as such a revelation must have 
been to the Emperor, the prospect of so powerful 9 



58 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

support gave him greater boldness to oppose the Prot 
estants. Their demands were rejected, and the Diet 
broke up without coming to a decision. But Matthias 
was the victim of this dispute. The Protestants refused 
him their supplies, and made him alone suffer for the 
inflexibility of the Koman Catholics. 

The Turks, however, appeared willing to prolong the 
cessation of hostilities, and Bethlem Gabor was left in 
peaceable possession of Transylvania. The empire was 
now free from foreign enemies ; and even at home, in the 
midst of all these fearful disputes, peace still reigned. 
An unexpected accident had given a singular turn to the 
dispute as to the succession of Juliers. This duchy was 
still ruled conjointly by the Electoral House of Branden- 
burg and the Palatine of Neuberg: and a marriage 
between the Prince of Neuberg and a Princess of Branden- 
burg was to have inseparably united the interests of the two 
houses. But the whole scheme was upset by a box on 
the ear, which, in a drunken brawl, the Elector of 
Brandenburg unfortunately inflicted upon his intended 
son-in-law. From this moment the good understanding 
between the two houses was at an end. The Prince of 
Neuberg embraced popery. The hand of a princess of 
Bavaria rewarded his apostasy, and the strong support of 
Bavaria and Spain was the natural result of both. To 
secure to the Palatine the exclusive possession of Juliers, 
the Spanish troops from the Netherlands were marched 
into the Palatinate. To rid himself of these guests, the 
Elector of Brandenburg called the Flemings to his 
assistance, whom he sought to propitiate by embracing 
the Calvinist religion. Both Spanish and Dutch armies 
appeared, but, as it seemed, only to make conquests for 
themselves. 

The neighboring war of the Netherlands seemed now 
about to be decided on German ground ; and what an 
inexhaustible mine of combustibles lay here ready for it ! 
The Protestants saw with consternation the Spaniards 
establishing themselves upon the Lower Rhine ; with still 
greater anxiety did the Roman Catholics see the Hol- 
landers bursting through the frontiers of the empire. 
3t was in the west that the mine was expected to explode 



THE THIETY YEAES' WAE. 59 

which had long been dug under the whole of Germany. 
To the west apprehension and anxiety turned; but the 
spark which kindled the flame came unexpectedly from 
the east. 

The tranquillity which the Letter of Majesty of 
Rodolph II. had established in Bohemia lasted for some 
time under the administration of Matthias, till the 
nomination of a new heir to this kingdom in the person 
of Ferdinand of Gratz. 

This prince, whom we shall afterwards become better 
acquainted with under the title of Ferdinand II., Em- 
peror of Germany, had, by the violent extirpation of the 
Protestant religion within his hereditary dominions, an- 
nounced himself as an inexorable zealot for popery, and 
was consequently looked upon by the Roman Catholic 
part of Bohemia as the future pillar of their church. 
The declining health of the Emperor brought on this 
hour rapidly ; and, relying on so powerful a supporter, 
the Bohemian Papists began to treat the Protestants with 
little moderation. The Protestant vassals of Roman 
Catholic nobles, in particular, experienced the harshest 
treatment. At length several of the former were in- 
cautious enough to speak somewhat loudly of their hopes, 
and by threatening hints to awaken among the Prot- 
estants a suspicion of their future sovereign. But this 
mistrust would never have broken out into actual 
violence had the Roman Catholics confined themselves 
to general expressions, and not by attacks on individuals 
furnished the discontent of the people with enterprising 

Henry Matthias, Count Thurn, not a native of Bohemia, 
but proprietor of some estates in that kingdom, had, by 
his zeal for the Protestant cause, and an enthusiastic 
attachment to his newly-adopted country, gained the 
entire confidence of the Utraquists, which opened him 
the way to the most important posts. He had fought 
with great glory against the Turks, and won by a 
flattering address the hearts of the multitude. Of a hot 
and impetuous disposition, which loved tumult because 
his talents shone in it — rash and thoughtless enough to 
undertake things which cold prudence and a calmer 



60 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

temper would not have ventured upon — unscrupulous 
enough, where the gratification of his passions was con- 
cerned, to sport with the fate of thousands, and at the 
same time politic enough to hold in leading-strings such 
a people as the Bohemians then were. He had already- 
taken an active part in the troubles under Rodolph's 
administration; and the Letter of Majesty which the 
States had extorted from that Emperor was chiefly to be 
laid to his merit. The court had entrusted to him, as 
burgrave or castellan of Calstein, the custody of the 
Bohemian crown and of the national chai'ter. But the 
nation had placed in his hands something far more 
important — itself — with the office of defender or pro- 
tector of the faith. The aristocracy, by which the 
Emperor was ruled, imprudently deprived him of this 
harmless guardianship of the dead, to leave him his full 
influence over the living. They took him from his office 
of burgrave, or constable of the castle, which had rendered 
him dependent on the court, thereby opening his eyes 
to the importance of the other which remained, and 
wounded his vanity, which yet was the thing that made 
his ambition harmless. From this moment he was act- 
uated solely by a desire of revenge ; and the opportunity 
of gratifying it was not long wanting. 

In the Royal Letter which the Bohemians had extorted 
from Rodolph IL, as well as in the German religious 
treaty, one material article remained undetermined. All 
the privileges granted by the latter to the Protestants 
were conceived in favor of the Estates or governing 
bodies, not of the subjects; for only to those of the 
ecclesiastical states had a toleration, and that precarious, 
been conceded. The Bohemian Letter of Majesty, in the 
same manner, spoke only of the Estates and imperial 
towns, the magistrates of which had contrived to obtain 
equal privileges with the former. These alone were free 
to erect churches and schools, and openly to celebrate 
their Protestant worship; in all other towns, it was left 
entirely to the government to which they belonged to 
determine the religion of the inhabitants. The Estates of 
the Empire had availed themselves of this privilege in its 
iullest extent ; the secular, indeed, without opposition ; 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 61 

while the ecclesiastical, in whose case the declaration of 
Ferdinand had limited this privilege, disputed, not with- 
out reason, the validity of that limitation. What was a 
disputed point in the religious treaty was left still more 
doubtful in the Letter of Majesty; in the former the 
construction was not doubtful, but it Avas a question how 
far obedience might be compulsory ; in the latter the 
interpretation was left to the states. The subjects of the 
ecclesiastical Estates in Boliemia thought themselves 
entitled to the same rights which the declaration of 
Ferdinand secured to the subjects of German bishops; 
they considered themselves on an equality with the 
subjects of imperial towns, because they looked upon the 
ecclesiastical property as part of the royal demesnes. In 
the little town of Klostergrab, subject to the Archbishop 
of Prague, and in Braunau, which belonged to the abbot 
of that monastery, churches M'ere founded by the Prot- 
estants, and completed, notwithstanding the ojiposition 
of their superiors and the disapprobation of the Empei-or. 
In the meantime the vigilance of the defenders had 
somewhat relaxed, and the court thought it might venture 
on a decisive step. By the Emperor's orders the church 
at Klostergrab was pulled down, that at Braunau forcibly 
shut up, and the most turbulent of the citizens thrown 
into prison. A general commotion among the Protestants 
was the consequence of this measure ; a loud outcry was 
everywhere raised at this violation of the Letter of 
Majesty ; and Count Thurn, animated by revenge, and 
particularly called upon by his office of defender, showed 
himself not a little busy inflaming the minds of the 
people. At his instigation deputies were summoned to 
Prague from every circle in the empire, to concert the 
necessary measures against the common danger. It was 
resolved to jDctition the Emperor to press for the libera- 
tion of the prisoners. The answer of the Emjoeror, 
already offensive to the states, from its being addressed, 
not to them, but to his viceroy, denounced their conduct 
as illegal and rebellious, justified what had been done at 
Klostergarb and Braunau as the result of an imperial 
mandate, and contained some passages that might be 
construed into threats. 



62 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Count Thurn did not fail to augment the unfavorable 
impression wliich this imjjerial edict made upon the 
assembled Estates. He pointed out to them the danger 
in which all who had signed the jjetition were involved, 
and sought by working on their resentment and fears to 
hurry them into violent resolutions. To have caused 
their immediate revolt against the Emperor would have 
been, as yet, too bold a measure. It Avas only step by 
step that he would lead them on to tliis unavoidable 
result. He held it, therefore, advisable first to direct 
their indignation against the Emperor's counsellors ; and 
for that purpose circulated a report that the imperial 
proclamation had been drawn uj) by the government at 
Prague, and only signed in Vienna. Among the imperial 
delegates, the chief objects of the popular hatred, were 
the President of the Chamber, Slawata, and Baron 
Martinitz, who had been elected in j^lace of Count Thurn, 
Burgrave of Calstein. Both had long before evinced 
pretty openly their hostile feelings towards the Prot- 
estants, by alone refusing to be present at the sitting at 
which the Letter of Majesty had been inserted in the 
Bohemian constitution. A threat was made at the time 
to make them responsible for every violation of the Letter 
of Majesty; and from this moment, whatever evil befell 
the Protestants was set down, and not without reason, to 
their account. Of all the Roman Catholic nobles, these 
two had treated their Protestant vassals with the greatest 
harshness. They were accused of hunting them with 
dogs to the mass, and of endeavoring to drive them to 
popery by a denial of the rites of baptism, marriage, and 
burial. Against two characters so unpopular the public 
indignation was easily excited, and they were marked out 
for a sacrifice to the general indignation. 

On the 23d of May, 1618, the deputies appeared armed, 
and in great numbers, at the royal palace, and forced 
their way into the hall where the Commissioners Stern- 
berg, Martinitz, Lobkowitz, and Slawata Avere assembled. 
In a threatening tone they demanded to know from each 
of them, whether he had taken any part, or had consented 
to, the imperial proclamation. Sternberg received them 
with composure, Martinitz and Slawata with defiance. 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 63 

This decided their fate ; Sternberg and Lobkowitz, less 
hated and more feared, were led by the arm out of the 
room ; Martinitz and Slawata were seized, dragged to a 
window, and precipitated from a height of eighty feet 
into the castle trench. Their creature, the secretary 
Fabricius, was thrown after them. This singular mode 
of execution naturally excited the surprise of civilized 
nations. The Bohemians justified it as a national custom, 
and saw nothing remarkable in the whole affair, excepting 
that any one should have got up again safe and sound 
after such a fall. A dunghill, on which the imperial 
commissioners chanced to be deposited, had saved them 
from injury. 

It was not to be expected that this summary mode of 
proceeding would much increase the favor of the parties 
with the Emperor, but this was the very position to which 
Count Thm-n wished to bring them. If, from the fear oi 
uncertain danger, they had permitted themselves such an 
act of violence, the certain expectation of j)unishment, 
and the how urgent necessity of making themselves 
secure, would plunge them still deeper into guilt. By 
this brutal act of self-redress no room was left for irreso- 
lution or repentance, and it seemed as if a single crime 
could be absolved only by a series of violences. As the 
deed itself could not be undone, nothing was left but to 
disarm the hand of punishment. Thirty directors were 
appointed to organize a regular insurrection. They seized 
upon all the offices of state, and all the imperial revenues, 
took into their own service the royal functionaries and 
the soldiers, and summoned the whole Bohemian nation 
to avenge the common cause. .The Jesuits, whom the 
common hatred accused as the instigators of every 
previous oppression, were banished the kingdom, and this 
harsh measure the Estates found it necessary to justify 
in a formal manifesto. These various steps were taken 
for the preservation of the royal authority and the laws — 
the language of all rebels till fortune has decided in their 
favor. 

The emotion which the news of the Bohemian insurrec- 
tion excited at the imperial court was much less lively 
than such mtelligence deserved. The Emperor Matthias 



64 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

was no longer the resolute spirit that formerly sought out 
his king and master in the very bosom of his people, and 
hurled him from three thrones. The confidence and 
courage which had animated him in an usurpation de- 
serted him in a legitimate self-defense. The Bohemian 
rebels had first taken up arms, and the nature of circum- 
stances drove him to join them. But he could not hope 
to confine such a war to Bohemia. In all the territories 
under his dominion the Protestants were united by a 
dangerous sympathy — the common danger of their 
religion might suddenly combine them all into a formi- 
dable republic. What could he oppose to such an enemy, 
if the Protestant portion of his subjects deserted him ? 
And would not both parties exhaust themselves in 8"* 
ruinous a civil war ? How much was at stake if he lost ; 
and if he won, whom else would he destroy but his own 
subjects ? 

Considerations such as these inclined the Emperor and 
his council to concessions and pacific measures, but it was 
in this very spirit of concession that, as others would have 
it, lay the origin of the evil. The Archduke Ferdinand 
of Gratz congratulated the Emperor upon an event which 
would justify in the eyes of all Europe the severest 
measures against the Bohemian Protestants. " Disobed- 
ience, lawlessness, and insurrection," he said, " went 
always hand-in-hand with Protestantism. Every privilege 
which had been conceded to the Estates by himself and 
his predecessor had had no other effect than to raise 
their demands. All the measures of the heretics were 
aimed against the imperial authority. Step by step had 
they advanced from defiance to defiance up to this last 
aggression ; in a short time they would assail all that re- 
mained to- be assailed, in the person of the Emperor. In 
arms alone was there any safety against such an enemy — 
peace and subordination could be only established on 
the Tu'\ns of their dangerous privileges ; security for the 
Catholic belief was to be found only in the total destruc- 
tion of this sect. Uncertain, it was true, might be the 
event of the war, but inevitable was the ruin if it were 
pretermitted. The confiscation of the lands of the rebels 
would richly indemnify them for its expenses, while the 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 65 

terror of punishment would teach the other states tlie 
wisdom of a prompt obedience in future." Were the 
Bohemian Protestants to blame if they armed themselves 
in time against the enforcement of such maxims ? The 
insuri-ection in Bohemia, besides, was directed only 
against the successor of the Emperor, not against him- 
self, who had done nothing to justify the alarm of the 
Protestants. To exclude this prince from the Bohemian 
throne, arms had before been taken up under Matthias, 
though as long as this Emperor lived his subjects had 
kept within the bounds of an apparent submission. 

But Bohemia was in arms, and, unarmed, the Emperor 
dared not even offer them peace. For this purpose Spain 
supplied gold, and promised to send trooj)s from Italy 
and the Netherlands. Count Bucquoi, a native of the 
JSTetherlands, was named generalissimo, because no native 
could be trusted, and Count Dampierre, another foreigner, 
commanded under him. Before the army took the field 
the Emperor endeavored to bring about an amicable 
arrangement by the publication of a manifesto. In this 
he assured the Bohemians, "that he held sacred the 
Letter of Majesty — that he had not formed any resolu- 
tions inimical to their religion or their privileges, and 
that his present preparations were forced upon him by 
their own. As soon as the nation laid down their arms, 
he also would disband his army." But this gracious letter 
failed of its effect, because the leaders of the insurrection 
contrived to hide from the people the Emperor's good 
intentions. Instead of this, they circulated the most 
alarming reports from the pulpit, and by pamphlets, and 
terrified the deluded populace with threatened horrors of 
another Saint Bartholomew's that existed only in their 
own imagination. All Bohemia, with the exception of 
three towns, Budweiss, Krummau, and Pilsen, took part 
in this insurrection. These three towns, inhabited princi- 
pally by Roman Catholics, alone had the courage, in this 
general revolt, to hold out for the Emperor, who promised 
them assistance. But it could not escape Count Thurn 
how dangerous it was to leave in hostile hands three 
places of such importance, which would at all times keep 
open for the imperial troops an entrance into the kingdom. 



6Q THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

With prompt determination he appeared before Budweiss 
and Krummau in the hope of terrifying them into a surren- 
der. Krummau surrendered, but all his attacks were 
steadfastly repulsed by Budweiss. 

And now, too, the Emperor began to show more 
earnestness and energy. Bucquoi and Dainpierre, with 
two armies, fell upon the Bohemian territories, which 
they treated as a hostile country. But the imperial 
generals found the march to Prague more difficult than 
they had expected. Every pass, every position that was 
the least tenable, must be opened by the sword, and 
resistance increased at each fresh step they took, for the 
outrages of their troops, chiefly consisting of Hungarians 
and Walloons, drove their friends to revolt and their 
enemies to despair. But even now that his troops had 
penetrated into Bohemia, the Emperor continued to offer 
the Estates peace, and to show himself ready for an 
amicable adjustment. But the new prospects which 
opened upon them raised the courage of the revolters. 
Moravia espoused their party; and from Germany ap- 
peared to them a defender equally intrepid and unex- 
pected, in the person of Count Mansfeld. 

The heads of the Evangelic Union had been silent but 
not inactive spectators of the movements in Bohemia. 
Both were contending for the same cause and against the 
same enemy. In the fate of the Bohemians their con- 
federates in the faith might read their own ; and the 
cause of this people Avas represented as of solemn concern 
to the whole German union. True to these principles, 
the Unionists supported the courage of the insurgents by 
promises of assistance ; and a fortunate accident now 
enabled them, beyond their hopes, to fulfil them. 

The instrument by whicli the House of Austria was 
humbled in Germany was Peter Ernest, Count Mansfeld, 
the son of a distinguished Austrian officer, Ernest von 
Mansfeld, who for some time had commanded with repute 
the Spanish army in the Netherlands. His first campaigns 
in Juliers and Alsace had been made in the service of 
this house, and under the banner of the Archduke Leo- 
pold, against the Protestant religion and the liberties of 
Germany. But insensibly won by the principles of thia 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 67 

religion, he abandoned a leader whose selfishness denied 
him the reimbursement of the moneys expended in his 
cause, and he transferred his zeal and a victorious sword 
to the Evangelic Union. It happened just then that the 
Duke of Savoy, an ally of the Union, demanded assistance 
in a war against Spain. They assigned to him their 
newly-acquired servant, and Mansfeld received instruc= 
tions to raise an army of four thousand men in Germany, 
in the cause and in the j^ay of the duke. The army was 
ready to march at the very moment when the flames of 
war burst out in Bohemia, and the duke, who at the time 
did not stand in need of its services, placed it at the 
disposal of the Union. Nothing could be more welcome 
to these troops than the prospect of aiding their confed- 
erates in Bohemia at the cost of a third party. Mansfeld 
received orders forthwith to march with these four thou- 
sand men into that kingdom ; and a pretended Bohemian 
commission was given to blind the public as to the true 
author of this levy. 

This Mansfeld now appeared in Bohemia, and, by the 
occupation of Pilsen, strongly fortified and favorable to 
the Emperor, obtained a firm footing in the country 
The courage of the rebels was farther increased by succors 
which the Silesian States despatched to their assistance. 
Between these and the Imperialists several battles were 
fought, far indeed from decisive, but only on that account 
the more destructive, which served as the prelude to a 
more serious war. To check the vigor of his military 
operations, a negotiation was entered into with the Em- 
peror, and a disposition was shown to accept the proffered 
mediation of Saxony. But before the event could prove 
how little sincerity there was in these proposals, the 
Emperor was removed from the scene by death. 

What now had Matthias done to justify the expecta- 
tions which he had excited by the overthrow of his pre- 
decessor? Was it worth while to ascend a brother's 
throne through guilt, and then maintain it with so little 
dignity, and leave it with so little renown ? As long as 
Matthias sat on the throne he had to atone for the im- 
prudence by which he had gained it. To enjoy the real 
dignity a few years sooner he had shackled the free 



68 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

exercise of its prerogatives. The slender portion of inde 
pendence left liim by the growing power of the Estate--^ 
was still farther lessened by the encroachments of his 
relations. Sickly and childless he saw the attention oi 
the world turned to an ambitious heir who was impa 
tiently anticipating his fate ; and who, by his interference 
with the closing administration, was already opening his 
own. 

With Matthias the reigning line of the German House 
of Austria was in a manner extinct ; for of all the sons of 
Maximilian one only was now alive, the weak and child- 
less Archduke Albert, in the Netherlands, who had 
already renounced his claims to the inheritance in favor 
of the line of Gratz. The Spanish House had also, in a 
secret bond, resigned its pretensions to the Austrian 
possessions in behalf of the Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, 
in whom the branch of Hapsburg was about to put forth 
new shoots, and the former greatness of Austria to 
expei'ience a revival. 

The father of Ferdinand was the Archduke Charles of 
Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, the youngest brother of 
Emperor Maximilian II. ; his mother a princess of Bavaria. 
Having lost his father at twelve years of age, he was 
entrusted by the archduchess to the guardianship of her 
brother William, Duke of Bavaria, under whose eyes he 
was instructed and educated by Jesuits at the Academy 
of Ingolstadt. What principles he was likely to imbibe 
by his intercourse with a prince, who from motives of 
devotion had abdicated his government, may be easily 
conceived. Care was taken to point out to him, on the one 
hand, the weak indulgence of Maximilian's house towards 
the adherents of the new doctrines, and the consequent 
troubles of their dominions ; on tlie otlier, the blessings 
of Bavaria, and the inflexible religious zeal of its rulers ; 
between these two examples he was left to choose for 
himself. 

Formed in this school to be a stout champion of the 
faith, and a prompt insti-ument of the church, he left 
Bavaria, after a residence of Ave j^ears, to assume the gov- 
ernment of his hereditary dominions. The Estates of 
Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria, who, before doing homagey 



THE THlETY YEARS* WAR. 69 

demanded a guarantee for freedom of religion, were told 
that religious liberty has nothing to do with their allegi- 
ance. The oath was put to them without conditions, and 
unconditionally taken. Many years, however, elapsed, 
ere the designs which had been planned at Ingolstadt 
were ripe for execution. Before attempting to carry 
them into effect, he sought in person at Loretto the favor 
of the Virgin, and received the apostolic benediction in 
Rome at the feet of Clement VIII. 

These designs were nothing less than the expulsion of 
Protestantism from a country where it had the advantage 
of numbers, and had been legally recognized by a formal 
act of toleration, granted by his father to the noble and 
knightly estates of the land. A grant so formally ratified 
could not be revoked without danger ; but no difficulties 
could deter the pious pupil of the Jesuits. The example 
of other states, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, 
which within their own territories had exercised un- 
questioned a right of reformation, and the abuse which the 
Estates of Styria made of their religious liberties, would 
serve as a justification of this violent procedure. Under 
the shelter of an absurd positive law those of equity and 
prudence might, it is thought, be safely despised. In 
the execution of these unrighteous designs Ferdinand 
did, it must be owned, display no common courage and 
perseverance. Without tumult, and we may add, with- 
out cruelty, he suppressed the Protestant service in one 
town after another, and in a few years, to the astonish- 
ment of Germany, this dangerous work was brought to a 
successful end. 

But, while the Roman Catholics admired him as a hero, 
and the champion of the church, the Protestants began 
to combine against him as their most dangerous enemy. 
And yet Matthias' intention to bequeath to him the suc- 
cession met with little or no opposition in the elective 
states of Austria. Even the Bohemians agreed to receive 
him as their future king on very favorable conditions. 
It was not until afterwards, when they had experienced 
the pernicious influence of his councils on the administra- 
tion of the Emperor, that their anxiety was first excited; 
and then several projects, in his handwriting, which an 



70 TilE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

unlucky chance threw into their hands, as they plainly 
evinced his disposition towards them, carried their 
api^rehension to the utmost pitch. In particular, they 
were alarmed by a secret family compact with Spain, by 
which, in default of heirs-male of his own body, Fer- 
dinand bequeathed to that crown the kingdom of Bo- 
hemia, without first consulting the wishes of that nation, 
and without regard to its rights of free election. The 
many enemies, too, which by his reforms in Styria that 
prince had provoked among the Protestants, were very 
prejudicial to his interests in Bohemia ; and some Styrian 
emigrants, who had taken refuge there, bringing with 
them into their adopted country hearts overflowing with 
a desire of revenge, were particularly active in exciting 
the flame of revolt. Thus ill-affected did Ferdinand find 
the Bohemians when he succeeded Matthias. 

So bad an understanding between the nation and the 
candidate for the throne would have raised a storm even 
in the most peaceable succession ; how much more so at 
the present moment, before the ardor of insurrection had 
cooled ; when the nation had Just recovered its dignity, 
and reasserted its rights ; when they still held arms in 
their hands, and the consciousness of unity had awakened 
an enthusiastic reliance on their own strength ; when by 
past success, by the promises of foreign assistance, and 
by visionary expectations of the future, their courage had 
been raised to an undoubting confidence. Disregarding 
the rights already conferred on Ferdinand, the Estates 
declared the throne vacant, and their right of election 
entirely unfettered. All hopes of their peaceful submis- 
sion were at an end, and if Ferdinand Avished still to wear 
the crown of Bohemia he must choose between pur- 
chasing it at the sacrifice of all that would make a crown 
desirable, or winning it sword in hand. 

But with what means was it to be won? Turn his eyes 
where he would the fire of revolt was burning. Silesia 
had already joined the insurgents in Bohemia ; Moravia 
was on the point of following its example. In Upper 
and Lower Austria the spirit of liberty was awake, as it 
had been under Rodolph, and the Estates refused to do 
homage. Hungary was menaced with an inroad by 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 71 

Prince Bethlen Gabor, on the side of Transylvania; a 
secret arming among the Turks spread consternation 
among the provinces to the eastward ; and, to complete 
his perplexities, the Protestants also in his hereditary 
dominions, stimulated by the general example, were 
again raising their heads. In that quarter their numbers 
were overwhelming ; in most places they had possession 
of the revenues which Ferdinand would need for the 
maintenance of the war. The neutral began to waver, 
the faithful to be discouraged, the turbulent alone to be 
animated and confident. One half of Germany encouraged 
the rebels, the other inactively awaited the issue ; Spanish 
assistance was still very remote. The moment which 
had brought him everything threatened also to deprive 
him of all. 

And when he now, yielding to the stern law of necessity, 
made overtures to the Bohemian rebels, all his proposals 
for peace were insolently rejected. Count Thurn, at the 
head of an army, entered Moravia to bring this province, 
which alone continued to waver, to a decision. The ap- 
pearance of their friends is the signal of revolt for the 
Moravian Protestants. Brunn is taken, the remainder of 
the country yields with free will ; throughout the province 
government and religion are changed. Swelling as it 
flows, the torrent of rebellion pours down upon Austria, 
where a party, holding similar sentiments, receives it with 
a joyful concurrence. Henceforth there should be no 
more distinctions of religion ; equality of rights should 
be guaranteed to all Christian churches. They hear that 
a foreign force has been invited into the country to 
oppress the Bohemians. Let them be sought out, and 
the enemies of liberty pursued to the ends of the earth. 
Not an arm is raised in defence of the Archduke, and the 
rebels, at length, encamp- before Vienna to besiege their 
sovereign. 

Ferdinand had sent his children from Gratz, where 
they were no longer safe, to the Tyrol ; he himself awaited 
the insurgents in his capital. A handful of soldiers was 
all he could oppose to the enraged multitude ; these few 
were without pay or provisions, and therefore little to be 
depended on. Vienna was uni^repared for a long siege. 



72 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The party of the Protestants, ready at any moment to 
join the Bohemians, had the preponderance in the city ; 
those in the country had ah'eady begun to levy ti'oops 
against him. Ah'eady, in imagination, the Protestant 
populace saw the Emperor shut up in a monastery, his 
territories divided, and his children educated as Prot- 
estants. Confiding in secret, and surrounded by jDublic 
enemies, he saw the chasm every moment widening to 
engulf his hopes and even himself. The Bohemian bullets 
were already falling upon the imperial palace, when 
sixteen Austrian barons forcibly entered his chamber, 
and inveighing against him with loud and bitter re- 
proaches, endeavored to force him into a confederation 
with the Bohemians. One of them seizing him by the 
button of his doublet, demanded, in a tone of menace, 
" Ferdinand, wilt thou sign it ? " 

Who would not be pardoned had he wavered in this 
frightful situation ? Yet Ferdinand still remembered the 
dignity of a Roman emperor. No alternative seemed 
left to him but an immediate flight or submission ; laymen 
urged him to the one, priests to the other. If he aban- 
doVied the city it would fall into the enemy's hands ; 
with Vienna, Austria was lost ; with Austria, the imperial 
throne. Ferdinand abandoned not his capital, and as 
little would he hear of conditions. 

The Archduke is still engaged in altercation with the 
deputed barons, when all at once a sound of trumpets is 
heard in the palace square. Terror and astonishment take 
possession of all present; a fearful report pervades the 
palace; one deputy after another disappears. Many of 
the nobility and the citzens hastily take refuge in tlie 
camp of Thurn. This sudden change is effected by a 
regiment of Dampierre's cuirassiers, who at that moment 
marched into the city to defend the Archduke. A body 
of infantry soon followed ; reassured by their appearance, 
several of the Roman Catholic citizens, and even the 
students themselves, take up arms. A report which 
arrived just at the same time from Bohemia made his 
deliverance complete. The Flemish general, Bucquoi, 
had totally defeated Count Mansfeld at Budweiss, and 
was marching upon Prague. The Bohemians hastily 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 73 

broke up their camp before Vienna to protect their own 
capital. 

And now also the passes were free which the enemy 
had taken possession of in order to obstruct Ferdinand's 
progress to his coronation at Frankfort. If the accession 
to the imperial throne was important for the plans of the 
King of Hungary, it was of still greater consequence at the 
present moment, when his nomination as Emperor would 
afford the most unsuspicious and decisive proof of the 
dignity of his person, and of the justice of his cause, 
while, at the same time, it would give hira a hope of 
support from the Empire. But the same cabal which 
opposed him in his hereditary dominions labored also to 
counteract him in his canvass for the imperial dignity. 
No Austrian jsrince, they maintained, ought to ascend 
the throne ; least of all Ferdinand, the bigoted persecutor 
of their religion, the slave of Spain and of the Jesuits. 
To prevent this the crown had been offered, even during 
the lifetime of Matthias, to the Duke of Bavaria, and, on 
his refusal, to the Duke of Savoy. As some difficulty 
was experienced in settling with the latter the conditions 
of acceptance, it was sought, at all events, to delay the 
election till some decisive blow in Austria or Bohemia 
should annihilate all the hopes of Ferdinand, and incapa- 
citate hira from any competition for this dignity. The 
members of the Union left no stone unturned to gain over 
from Ferdinand the Electorate of Saxony, which was 
bound to Austrian interests ; they represented to this 
court the dangers with which the Protestant religion, and 
even the constitution of the empire, were threatened by the 
principles of this prince and his Spanish alliance. By 
the elevation of Ferdinand to the imperial throne, 
Germany, they further asserted, would be involved in 
the private quarrels of this prince, and bring upon itself 
the arms of Bohemia. But in spite of all opposing 
influences the day of election was fixed, Ferdinand 
summoned to it as lawful King of Bohemia, and his 
electoral vote, after a fruitless resistance on the part of 
the Bohemian Estates, acknowledged to be good. The 
votes of the three ecclesiastical electorates were for him, 
Saxony was favorable to him, Brandenburg made no 



74 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

opposition, and a decided majority declared him Emperor 
in 1619. Thus he saw the most doubtful of his crowns 
placed first of all on his head; but a few days after he 
lost that which he had reckoned among the most certain 
of his possessions. While he was thus elected Emperor 
in Frankfort, he was in Prague deprived of the Bohemian 
throne. 

Almost all of his German hereditary dominions had in 
the meantime entered into a formidable league with the 
Bohemians, whose insolence now exceeded all bounds. 
In a general Diet, the latter, on the 17th of August, 1619, 
proclaimed the Emperor an enemy to the Bohemian 
religion and liberties, who by his pernicious counsels had 
alienated from them the affections of tlie late Emperor, 
had furnished troops to ojDpress them, had given their 
country as a prey to foreigners, and finally, in contraven- 
tion of the national rights, had bequeathed the crown, by 
a secret compact, to Spain ; they therefore declared that 
he had forfeited whatever title he might otherwise have 
had to the crown, and immediately proceeded to a new 
election. As this sentence was pronounced by Protest- 
ants, their choice could not well fall upon a Roman 
Catholic prince, though, to save appearances, some voices 
were raised for Bavaria and Savoy. But the violent 
religious animosities which divided the evangelical and 
the reformed parties among the Protestants impeded 
for some time the election even of a Protestant king; 
till at last the address and activity of the Calvinists 
carried the day from the numerical superiority of the 
Lutherans. 

Among all the princes who were competitors for this 
dignity, the Elector Palatine Frederick V. had the best 
gi'ounded claims on tlie confidence and gratitude of the 
Bohemians ; and, among them all, there was no one in 
whose case the private interests of particular Estates, and 
the attachment of the people, seemed to be justified by 
so many considerations of state. Frederick V. was a free 
and lively spirit, of great goodness of heart and regal 
liberality. He was the head of the Calvinistic party in 
Germany, the leader of tlie Union, whose resources were 
at his disposal, a near relation of the Duke of Bavaria, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 75 

and a son-in-law of the King of Great Britain, who might 
lend hira his powerful support. All these considerations 
were prominently and successfully brought forward by 
the Calvinists, and Frederick V. was chosen king by the 
Assembly at Prague amidst prayers and tears of joy. 

The whole proceedings of the Diet at Prague had been 
premeditated, and Frederick himself had taken too active 
a share in the matter to feel at all surprised at the offer 
made to him by the Bohemians. But now the immediate 
glitter of this throne dazzled him, and the magnitude both 
of his elevation and his delinquency made his weak mind 
to tremble. After the usual manner of jjusillanimous 
spirits, he sought to confirm himself in his purpose by the 
opinions of others ; but these opinions had no weight 
with him when they ran counter to his own cherished 
wishes. Saxony and Bavaria, of whom he sought advice, 
all his brother electors, all who compared the magnitude 
of the design with his capacities and resources, warned 
him of the danger into which he was about to rush. Even 
King James of England preferred to see his son-in-law 
deprived of this crown than that the sacred majesty of 
kings should be outraged by so dangerous a precedent. 
But of what avail was the voice of prudence against the 
seductive glitter of a crown ? In the moment of boldest 
determination, when they are indignantly rejecting the 
consecrated branch of a race which had governed them 
for two centuries, a free people throws itself into his arms. 
Confiding in his courage, they choose him as their leader 
in the dangerous career of glory and liberty. To him, as 
to its born champion, an oppressed religion looks for 
shelter and support against its persecvTtors. Could he 
have the weakness to listen to his fears, and to betray the 
cause of religion and liberty ? Tliis religion proclaims to 
him its own preponderance and the weakness of its 
rival, — two-thirds of the power of Austria are now in 
arms against Austria itself, while a formidable confed- 
eracy, already formed in Transylvania, would, by a hostile 
attack, further distract even the weak remnant of its 
power. Could inducements such as these fail to awaken 
his ambition, or such hopes to animate and inflame his 
resolution ? 



76 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

A few moments of calm consideration would have 
sufficed to show the danger of the undertaking and the 
comparative worthlessness of the prize. But the tempta- 
tion spoke to his feelings ; the warning only to his 
reason. It Avas his misfortune that his nearest and most 
influential counsellors espoused the side of his jjassions. 
The aggrandizement of their master's power opened to 
the ambition and avarice of his Palatine servants an 
unlimited field for their gratification ; this anticipated 
triumph of their church kindled the ardor of the Calvin- 
istic fanatic. Could a mind so weak as that of Ferdinand 
resist the delusions of his counsellors, who exaggerated 
his resources and his strength as much as they under- 
rated those of his enemies ; or the exhortations of his 
preachers, who announced the effusions of their fanatical 
zeal as the immediate insj^iration of heaven ? The dreams 
of astrology filled his mind with visionary hopes ; even 
love conspired, with its irresistible fascination, to complete 
the seduction. *'Had you," demanded the Electress, 
" confidence enough in yourself to accept the hand of a 
king's daughter, and have you misgivings about taking 
a crown which is voluntarily offered you? I would 
rather eat bread at thy kingly table than feast at thy 
electoral board." 

Frederick accepted the Bohemian crown. The corona- 
tion was celebrated with unexampled pomp at Prague, 
for the nation displayed all its riches in honor of its own 
work. Silesia and Moravia, the adjoining provinces to 
Bohemia, followed their example, and did homage to 
Frederick. The reformed faith was enthroned in all tlie 
churches of the kingdom; the rejoicings were unbounded, 
their attachment to their new king bordered on adoration. 
Denmark and Sweden, Holland and Venice, and several 
of the Dutch states, acknowledged him as lawful sovez- 
ereign, and Frederick now prepared to maintain his new 
acquisition. 

His principal hopes rested on Prince Bethlen Gabor of 
Transylvania. This formidable enemy of Austria, and 
of the Roman Catholic church, not content witli tlie 
principality which, with the assistance of the Turks, he had 
wrested from his legitimate prince, Gabriel Bathori, gladly 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 77 

seized this opportunity of aggrandizing himself at the 
expense of Austria, which liad hesitated to acknowledge 
him as sovereign of Transylvania. An attack upon Hun- 
gary and Austria was concerted with the Bohemian rebels, 
and both armies were to unite before the capital. Mean- 
time, Bethlen Gabor, under the mask of friendship, dis- 
guised the true object of his warlike preparations, artfully 
promising the Emperor to lure the Bohemians into the 
toils by a pretended offer of assistance, and to deliver 
up to him alive the leaders of the insurrection. All at 
once, however, he appeared in a hostile attitude in Upper 
Hungary. Before him went terror, and devastation 
behind ; all opposition yielded, and at Presburg he 
received the Hungai-ian crown. The Emperor's brother, 
who governed in Vienna, trembled for the capital. He 
hastily summoned General Bucquoi to his assistance, and 
the retreat of the Imperialists drew the Bohemians, a 
second time, before the walls of Vienna. Keinforced by 
twelve thousand Transylvanians, and soon after joined by 
the victorious army of Bethlen Gabor, they again menaced 
the capital with assault ; all the country round Vienna 
was laid waste, the navigation of the Danube closed, all 
supplies cut off, and the horrors of famine were threatened. 
Ferdinand, hastily recalled to his caj^ital by this urgent 
danger, saw himself a second time on the brink of ruin. 
But want of provisions, and the inclement weather, finally 
compelled the Bohemians to go into quarters, a defeat in 
Hungary recalled Bethlen Gabor, and thus once more had 
fortune rescued the Emperor. 

In a few weeks the scene was changed, and by his pru- 
dence and activity Ferdinand improved his position as 
rapidly as Frederick, by indolence and impolicy, ruined 
his. The Estates of Lower Austria were regained to 
their allegiance by a confirmation of their privileges ; and 
the few who still held out were declared guilty of lese- 
majeste and high treason. During the election of Frank- 
fort he had contrived, by personal representations, to 
win over to his cause the ecclesiastical electors, and also 
Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, at Munich. The whole 
issue of the war, the fate of Frederick and the Emperor, 
were now dependent on the part which the Union and the 



78 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

League snould take in the troubles of Bohemia. It was 
evidently of importance to all the Protestants of Germany 
that the King of Bohemia should be supported, while it 
was equally the interests of the Roman Catholics to 
prevent the ruin of the Emperor. If the Protestants 
succeeded in Bohemia, all the Roman Catholic princes in 
Germany might ti-emble for their possessions; if they 
failed, the Emperor would give laws to Protestant Ger- 
many. Thus Ferdinand put the League, Frederick the 
Union, in motion. The ties of relationship and a personal 
attachment to the Emperor, his brother-in-law, with 
whom he had been educated at Ingolstadt, zeal for the 
Roman Catholic religion, which seemed to be in the most 
imminent peril, and the suggestions of the Jesuits, com- 
bined with the suspicious movements of the Union, moved 
the Duke of Bavaria, and all the princes of the League, 
to make the cause of Ferdinand their own. 

According to the terms of a treaty with the Emperor, 
which assured to the Duke of Bavaria compensation for 
all the expenses of the war, or the losses he might sustain, 
Maximilian took, with full powers, the command of the 
troops of the League, which were ordered to march to the 
assistance of the Emperor against the Bohemian rebels. 
The leaders of the Union, instead of delaying by every 
means this dangerous coalition of the League with the 
Emperor, did everything in their power to accelerate it. 
Could they, they thought, but once drive the Roman 
Catholic League to take an open part in the Bohemian 
war they might reckon on similar measures from all the 
members and allies of the Union. Without some open 
step taken by the Roman Catholics against the Union no 
effectual confederacy of the Protestant powers was to be 
looked for. They seized, therefore, the present emer- 
gency of the troubles in Bohemia to demand from the 
Roman Catholics the abolition of their past grievances, 
and full security for the future exercise of their religion. 
They addressed this demand, which was moreover 
couched in threatening language, to the Duke of Bavaria, 
as the head of the Roman Catholics, and they insisted on 
an immediate and categorical answer. Maximilian might 
decide for or against them, still their point was gained \ 



THE THIRTY YEARS ' WAR. 79 

his concession, if he yielded, would deprive the Roman 
Catholic party of its most powerful protector ; his refusal 
would arm the whole Protestant party, and render 
inevitable a war in which they hoped to be the conquerors. 
Maximilian, firmly attached to the opposite party from 
so many other considerations, took the demands of the 
Union as a formal declaration of hostilities, and quickened 
his preparations. While Bavaria and the League were 
thus arming in the Emperor's cause negotiations for a 
subsidy were opened with the Spanish court. All the 
difficulties with which the indolent policy of that ministry 
met this demand were happily surmounted by the imperial 
ambassador at Madrid, Count Khevenhuller. In addition 
to a subsidy of a million of florins, which from time to 
time were doled out by this court an attack upon the 
Lower Palatinate, from the side of the Spanish Nether- 
lands, was at the same time agreed upon. 

During these attempts to draw all the Roman Catholic 
powers into the League, every exertion was made against 
the counter-league of the Protestants. To this end it 
was important to alarm the Elector of Saxony and the 
other Evangelical powers, and accordingly the Union 
were diligent in propagating a rumor that the preparations 
of the League had for their object to deprive them of the 
ecclesiastical foundations they had secularized. A writ- 
ten assurance to the contrary calmed the fears of the 
Duke of Saxony, whom moreover private jealousy of the 
Palatine, and the insinuations of his chaplain, who was in 
the pay of Austria, and mortification at having been 
passed over by the Bohemians in the election to the 
throne, strongly inclined to the side of Austria. The 
fanaticism of the Lutherans could never forgive the 
reformed party for having drawn, as they expressed it, so 
many fair jDrovinces into the gulf of Calvinism, and 
rejecting the Roman Antichrist only to make way for an 
Helvetian one. 

While Ferdinand used every effort to improve the 
unfavorable situation of his affairs, Frederick was daily 
injuring his good cause. By his close and questionable 
connection with the Prince of Transylvania, the open ally 
of the Porte, he gave offence to weak minds ; and a 



80 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

general rumor accused him of furthering his own ambition 
at the expense of Christendom, and arming the Turks 
against Germany. His inconsiderate zeal for the Cal- 
vinistic scheme irritated the Lutherans of Bohemia, his 
attacks on image-worship incensed the Papists of this 
kingdom against him. New and oppressive imposts 
alienated the affections of all his subjects. The disap- 
pointed hopes of the Bohemian nobles cooled their zeal ; 
the absence of foreign succors abated their confidence. 
Instead of devoting himself with untiring energies to the 
affairs of his kingdom, Frederick wasted his time in 
amusements ; instead of filling his treasury by a wise 
economy, he squandered his revenues by a needless 
theatrical pomp and a misplaced munificence. With a 
light-minded carelessness, he did but gaze at himself in 
his new dignity, and in the ill-timed desire to enjoy his 
crown, he forgot the more pressing duty of securing it on 
his head. 

But greatly as men erred in their opinion of him, Fre- 
derick himself had not less miscalculated his foreign 
resources. Most of the members of the Union considered 
the affairs of Bohemia as foreign to the real object of 
their confederacy; others, who were devoted to him, 
were overawed by fear of the Emperor. Saxony and 
Hesse Darmstadt had already been gained over by Fer- 
dinand ; Lower Austria, on which side a powerful diver- 
sion had been looked for, had made its submission to the 
Emperor ; and Bethlen Gabor had concluded a truce with 
him. By its embassies the court of Vienna had induced 
Denmark to remain inactive, and to occupy Sweden in a 
war with the Poles. The republic of Holland had enough 
to do to defend itself against the arms of the Spaniards ; 
Venice and Saxony remained inactive ; King James of 
England was overreached by the artifice of Spain. One 
friend after another withdrew ; one hope vanished after 
another — so rapidly in a few months was everything 
changed. 

In the meantime the leaders of the Union assembled 
an army; the Emperor and the League did the same. 
The troops of the latter were assembled under the banners 
of Maximilian at Donauwerth, those of the Union at Ulm, 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 81 

under the Margrave of Anspach. The decisive moment 
seemed at length to have arrived which was to end these 
long dissensions by a vigorous blow, and irrevocably to set- 
tle the relation of the two churches in Germany. Anxiously 
on the stretch was the expectation of both parties. How 
great then was their astonishment when suddenly the 
intelligence of peace arrived, and both armies separated 
without striking a blow ! 

The intervention of France effected this peace, which 
was equally acceptable to both parties. The French 
cabinet, no longer swayed by the counsels of Henry the 
Great, and whose maxims of state were perhaps not 
applicable to the present condition of that kingdom, was 
now far less alarmed at the preponderance of Austria 
than of the increase which would accrue to the strength 
of the Calvinists if the Palatine house should be able 
to retain the throne of Bohemia. Involved at the time 
in a dangerous conflict with its own Calvinistic subjects, 
it was of the utmost importance to France that the Prot- 
estant faction in Bohemia should be suppressed before 
the Huguenots could copy their dangerous example. In 
order therefore to facilitate the Emperor's operations 
against the Bohemians, she offered her mediation to the 
Union and the League, and effected this unexpected 
treaty of which the main article was, " That the Union 
should abandon all interference in the affairs of Bohemia, 
and confine the aid which they might afford to Frederick 
v., to his Palatine territories." To this disgraceful 
treaty, the Union were moved by the firmness of Maxi- 
milian and the fear of being pressed at once by the 
troops of the League, and a new Imperial army which 
was on its march from the Netherlands. 

The whole force of Bavaria and the League was now 
at the disposal of the Emperor to be employed against 
the Bohemians, who by the pacification of Ulm were 
abandoned to their fate. With a rapid movement, and 
before a rumor of the proceeding;s at Ulm could reach 
there, Maximilian appeared in Upper Austria, when the 
Estates, surprised and unprepared for an enemy, purchased 
the Emperor's pardon by an immediate and uncondi- 
tional submission. In Lower Austria the duke formed a 



82 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

junction with the troops from the Low Countries, undei 
feucquoi, and without loss of time the united Imperial 
and Bavarian forces, amounting to fifty thousand men, 
entered Bohemia. All the Bohemian troops, which were 
dispersed over Lower Austria and Moravia, were driven 
before them ; every town which attempted resistance was 
quickly taken by storm ; others, terrified by the report of 
the punishment inflicted on these, voluntarily opened their 
gates ; nothing in short interrupted the impetuous career 
of Maximilian. The Bohemian army, commanded by the 
brave Prince Christian of Anhalt, retreated to the neigh- 
borhood of Prague ; where, under the walls of the city, 
Maximilian offered him battle. 

The wretched condition in which he hoped to surprise 
the insurgents justified the rapidity of the duke's move- 
ments, and secured him the victory. Frederick's army 
did not amoimt to thirty thousand men. Eight thousand 
of these were furnished by the Prince of Anhalt ; ten 
thousand were Hungarians, whom Bethlen Gabor had 
despatched to his assistance. An inroad of the Elector of 
Saxony upon Lusatia had cut off all succors from that 
country and from Silesia ; the pacification of Austria put 
an end to all his expectations from that quarter ; Bethlen 
Gabor, his most powerful ally, remained inactive in Tran- 
sylvania ; the Union had betrayed his cause to the 
Emperor. Nothing remained to him but his Bohemians ; 
and they were without good-will to his cause, and without 
unity and courage. The Bohemian magnates were indig- 
nant that German generals should be put over their heads ; 
Count Mansfeld remained in Pilsen, at a distance from 
the camp, to avoid the mortification of serving under 
Anhalt and Hohenlohe. The soldiers, in want of neces- 
saries, became dispirited ; and the little discipline that 
was observed gave occasion to bitter complaints from the 
peasantry. It was in vain that Frederick made his ap- 
pearance in the camp, in the hope of reviving the courage 
of the soldiers by his presence, and of kindling the emu- 
lation of the nobles by his example. 

The Bohemians had begun to entrench themselves on 
the White Mountain, near Pi-ague, when they were at- 
tacked by the Imperial and Bavarian armies, on the 8tb 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 83 

November, 1620. In the beginning of the action some 
advantages were gained by the cavalry of the Prince of 
Anhalt ; but the superior numbei-s of the enemy soon 
neutralized them. The charge of the Bavarians and Wal- 
loons was irresistible. The Hungarian cavalry was the 
first to retreat. The Bohemian infantry soon followed their 
example; and the Germans were at last carried along 
with them in the general flight. Ten cannons, composing 
the whole of Frederick's artillery, were taken by the 
enemy ; four thousand Bohemians fell in the flight and on 
the field; while of the Imperialists and soldiers of the 
League only a few hundred were killed. In less than an 
hour this decisive action was over. 

Frederick was seated at table in Prague while his 
army was thus cut to pieces. It is probable that he had 
not expected the attack on this day, since he had ordered 
an entertainment for it. A messenger summoned him 
from table to show him from the walls the whole frightful 
scene. He requested a cessation of hostilities for- twenty- 
four hours for deliberation ; but eight was all the Duke 
of Bavaria would allow him. Frederick availed him- 
self of these to fly by night from the capital, with his 
wife and the chief officers of his army. This flight was so 
hurried that the Prince of Anhalt left behind him his most 
private papers and Frederick his crown. " I know now 
what I am," said this unfortunate prince to those who 
endeavored to comfort him ; " there are virtues whicli 
misfortune only can teach us, and it is in adversity alone 
that princes learn to know themselves." 

Prague was not ii-retrievably lost when Frederick's 
pusillanimity abandoned it. The light troops of Mansfeld 
were still in Pilsen, and were not engaged in the action. 
Bethlen Gabor might at any moment have assumed an 
offensive attitude, and drawn off the Emperor's army to 
the Hungarian frontier. The defeated Bohemians might 
rally. Sickness, famine, and the inclement weather might 
wear out the enemy; but all these hopes disappeared 
before the immediate alarm. Frederick dreaded the 
fickleness of the Bohemians, who might probably yield to 
the temptation to purchase, by the surrender of his person, 
the pardon of the Emperor. 



84 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Thurn, and tliose of this party who were in the same 
condemnation with him, found it equally inexpedient to 
await their destiny within the walls of Prague. They 
retired towards Moravia, with a view of seeking refuge 
in Transylvania. Frederick fled to Breslau, where, how- 
ever, he only remained a short time. He removed from 
thence to the court of the Elector of Brandenburg, and 
finally took shelter in Holland. 

The battle of Prague had decided the fate of Bohemia. 
Prague surrendered the next day to the victors ; the 
other towns followed the example of the capital. The 
Estates did homage without conditions, and the same was 
done by those of Silesia and Moravia. The Emperor 
allowed three months to elapse before instituting any 
inquiry into the past. Reassured by this apparent clem- 
ency, many who at first had fled in terror appeared again 
in the capital. All at once, however, the storm burst 
forth ; forty-eight of the most active among the insurgents 
were arrested on the same day and hour, and tried by an 
extraordinary commission, composed of native Bohemians 
and Austrians. Of these, twenty-seven, and of the com- 
mon people an immense number, exjDired on the scaffold. 
The absenting offenders were summoned to appear to 
their trial, and, failing to do so, condemned to death as 
traitors and offenders against his Catholic Majesty, their 
estates confiscated, and their names affixed to the gallows. 
The property also of the rebels who had fallen in the field 
was seized. This tyranny might have been borne, as it 
affected individuals only, and while the ruin of one en- 
riched another ; but more intolerable was the oppression 
which extended to the whole kingdom without exception. 
All the Protestant preachers were banished from the 
country; the Bohemians first, and afterwards those of 
Germany. The Letter of Majesty Ferdinand tore with 
his own hand and burnt the seal. Seven years after the 
battle of Prague the toleration of the Protestant religion 
within the kingdom was entirelj^ revoked. But what- 
ever violence the Em]ieror allowed himself against the 
religious privileges of liis subjects, he carefully abstained 
from interfering with their political constitution ; and 
while he deprived them of the liberty of thought, he 



THE THIRTY YIIAKS' WAR. 85 

magnanimously left them the prerogative of taxing them- 
selves. 

The victory of the White Mountain put Ferdinand in 
possession of all his dominions. It even invested him 
with greater authority over them than his predecessors 
enjoyed, since their allegiance had been unconditionally 
pledged to him, and no Letter of Majesty now existed to 
limit his sovereignty. All his wishes were now gratified 
to a degree surpassing his most sanguine expectations. 

It was now in his power to dismiss his allies and dis- 
band his army. If he was just, there was an end of the 
war — if he was both magnanimous and just, punishment 
was also at an end. The fate of Germany was in his 
hands ; the hapj^iness and misery of millions depended on 
the resolution he should take. Never was so great a 
decision resting on a single mind ; never did the blindness 
of one man produce so much ruin. 



BOOK II. 



The resolution which Ferdinand now adopted gave to 
the war a new direction, a new scene, and new actors. 
From a rebellion in Bohemia, and the chastisement of 
rebels, a war extended first to Germany, and afterwards 
to Europe. It is, therefore, necessary to take a general 
survej^ of the state of affairs both in Germany and the 
rest of Europe. 

Unequally as the territory of Germany and the privi- 
leges of its members were divided among the Roman 
Catholics and the Protestants, neither party could hope 
to maintain itself against the encroachments of its adver- 
sary otherwise than by a prudent use of its peculiar ad- 
vantages, and by a politic union among themselves. If 
the Roman Catholics were the more numerous party, and 
more favored by the constitution of the Empire, the Prot- 
estants, on the other hand, had tlie ndvautage of posses- 
sing a more compact and 2)oj)ulous Hue of territories, 



8Q THE THlRTf YEAES' WAR. 

valiant princes, a warlike nobility, numerous armiea 
flourishing free towns, the command of the sea, and, even 
at the worst, certainty of support from Roman Catholic 
states. If the Catholics could arm Spain and Italy in 
their favor, the republics of Venice, Holland, and Eng- 
land opened their treasures to the Protestants, while the 
states of the North and the formidable power of Turkey 
stood ready to afford them prompt assistance. Branden 
burg, Saxony, and the Palatinate opposed three Protest 
ant to three Ecclesiastical votes in the Electoral College ; 
while to the Elector of Bohemia, as to the Archduke of 
Austria, the possession of the Imperial dignity was an 
important check if the Protestants properly availed 
themselves of it. The sword of the Union might keep 
within its sheath the sword of the League ; or, if matters 
actually came to a war, might make the issue of it doubt- 
ful. But, unfortunately, private interests dissolved the 
band of union which should have held together the 
Protestant members of the empire. This critical con- 
juncture found none but second-rate actors on the political 
stage, and the decisive moment was neglected because the 
courageous were deficient in power, and the powerful in 
sagacity, courage, and resolution. 

The Elector of Saxony was placed at the head of the 
German Protestants by the services of his ancestor Mau- 
rice, by the extent of his territories, and by the influence of 
his electoral vote. Upon the resolution he might adopt 
the fate of the contending parties seemed to depend ; and 
John George was not insensible to the advantages which 
this important situation procured him. Equally valuable 
as an ally, both to the Emperor and to the Protestant 
Union, he cautiously avoided committing himself to either 
party ; neither trusting himself by any irrevocable declar- 
ation entirely to the gratitude of the Emperor, nor 
renouncing the advantages which were to be gained from 
his fears. Uninfected by tlie contagion of religious and 
romantic enthusiasm which liurried sovereign after sov- 
ereign to risk both crown and life on the hazard of war, 
John George aspired to the more solid renown of improv- 
ing and advancing the interests of his territories. His 
contemporaries accused him of forsaking the Protestant 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 8? 

cause in the very midst of the storm ; of preferring the 
aggrandizement of his house to the emancipation of his 
country ; of exposing the whole Evangelical or Lutheran 
church of Germany to ruin rather than raise an arm in 
defence of the Reformed or Calvinists; of injuring the 
common cause by his suspicious friendship more seriously 
than the open enmity of its avowed opponents. But it 
would have been well if his accusers had imitated the 
wise policy of the Elector. If, despite of the prudent 
policy, the Saxons, like all others, groaned at the cruelties 
which marked the Emperor's progress ; if all Germany 
was a witness how Ferdinand deceived his confederates 
and trifled with his engagements; if even the Elector 
himself at last perceived this — the more shame to the 
Emperor who could so basely betray such implicit confi- 
dence. 

If an excessive reliance on the Emperor, and the hope 
of enlarging his territories, tied the hands of the Elector 
of Saxony, the weak George William, Elector of Bran- 
denburg, was still more shamefully fettered by fear of 
Austria and of the loss of his dominions. What was 
made a reproach against these princes would have pre- 
served to the Elector Palatine his fame and his kingdom. 
A rash confidence in his untried strength, the influence of 
French counsels, and the temptation of a crown had 
seduced that unfortunate prince into an enterprise for 
which he had neither adequate genius nor political capac- 
ity. The partition of his territories among discordant 
princes enfeebled the Palatinate, which, united, might 
have made a longer resistance. 

This partition of territory was equally injurious to the 
House of Hesse, in which, between Darmstadt and Cassel, 
religious dissensions had occasioned a fatal division. The 
line of Darmstadt, adhering to the Confession of Augs- 
burg, had placed itself under the Emperor's protection, 
who favored it at the expense of the Calvinists of Cassel. 
While his religious confederates were shedding their 
blood for their faith and their liberties, the Landgrave of 
Darmstadt was won over by the Emperor's gold. But 
William of Cassel, every way worthy of his ancestor, who, 
a century before, had defended the freedom of Germany 



88 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

against the formidable Charles V., espoused the cause of 
danger and of honor. Superior to that pusillanimity 
which made far more powerful princes bow before Ferdi- 
nand's might, the Landgrave William was the first to join 
the hero of Sweden, and set an example to the princes of 
Germany, which all had hesitated to begin. The boldness 
of his resolve was equalled by the steadfastness of his 
perseverance and the valor of his exploits. He placed 
himself with unshrinking resolution before his bleeding 
country, and boldly confronted the fearful enemy, whose 
hands were still reeking from the carnage of Magdeburg. 

The Landgrave William deserves to descend to immor- 
tality with the heroic race of Ernest. Thy day of ven- 
geance was long delayed, unfortunate John Frederick! 
Noble ! never-to-be-forgotten prince ! Slowly but brightly 
it broke. Thy times returned, and thy heroic spirit de 
scended on thy grandson. An intrepid race of princes 
issues from the Thuringian forests to shame, by immortal 
deeds, the unjust sentence which robbed thee of the elec- 
toral crown — to avenge thy offended shade by heaps of 
bloody sacrifice. The sentence of the conqueror could 
deprive thee of thy territories, but not that spirit of 
patriotism which staked them, nor that chivalrous courage 
which, a century afterwards, was destined to shake the 
throne of his descendant. Thy vengeance and that of 
Germany whetted the sacred sword, and one heroic hand 
after the other wielded the irresistible steel. As men 
they achieved what as sovereigns they dared not under- 
take ; they met in a glorious cause as the valiant soldiers 
of liberty. Too weak in territory to attack the enemy 
with their own forces, they directed foreign artillery 
against them, and led foreign banners to victory. 

The liberties of Germany, abandoned by the more 
powerful states, who, however, enjoyed most of the pros- 
perity accruing from them, were defended by a few 
princes for whom they were almost without value. The 
possession of territories and dignities deadened courage; 
the want of both made heroes. While Saxony, Branden- 
burg, and the rest drew back in terror, Anhalt, Mansfeld, 
the Prince of Weimar and others were shedding their 
blood in the field. The Dukes of Pomerania, Meclden- 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 89 

burg, Limeburg, and Wirtemberg, and the free cities of 
Upper Germany, to whom the name of Emperor was of 
course a formidable one, anxiously avoided a contest with 
such an opponent, and crouched murmuring beneath his 
mighty arm. 

Austria and Roman Catholic Germany possessed in 
Maximilian of Bavaria a champion as prudent as he was 
powerful. Adhering throughout the war to one fixed 
plan, never divided between his religion and his political 
interests ; not the slavish dependent of Austria, who was 
laboring for his advancement, and trembled before her 
powerful protector, Maximilian earned the territories and 
dignities that rewarded his exertions. The other Roman 
Catholic states, which were chiefly ecclesiastical, too un- 
warlike to resist the multitudes whom the prosperity of 
their territories allured, became the victims of the war 
one after another, and were contented to persecute in the 
cabinet and in the pulpit the enemy whom they could not 
openly oppose in the field. All of them, slaves either to 
Austria or Bavaria, sunk into insignificance by the side 
of Maximilian ; in his hand alone their united power 
could be rendered available. 

The formidable monarchy which Charles V. and his 
son had unnaturally constructed of the Netherlands, 
Milan, and the two Sicilies, and their distant possf^ssions 
in the East and West Indies, was under Philip III. and 
Philip IV. fast verging to decay. Swollen to a sudden 
greatness by unfruitful gold, this power was now sinking 
under a visible decline, neglecting, as it did, agriculture, 
the natural support of states. The conquests in the West 
Indies had reduced Spain itself to poverty, while they 
enriched the markets of Europe ; the bankers of Antwerp, 
Venice, and Genoa were making profit on the gold which 
was still buried in the mines of Peru. For the sake of 
India Spain had been depopulated, while the treasures 
drawn from thence were wasted in the reconquest of 
Holland, in the chimerical project of changing the succes- 
sion to the crown of France, and in an unfortunate attack 
upon England. But the pride of this court had survived 
its greatness, as the hate of its enemies had outlived its 
power. Distrust of the Protestants suggested to the 



90 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

ministry of Philip III. the dangerous policy of his father; 

and the reliance of the Roman Catholics in Germany on 
Spanish assistance was as firm as their belief in the 
wonder-working bones of the martyrs. External splen- 
dor concealed the inward wounds at which the life-blood 
of this monarchy was oozing ; and the belief of its strength 
survived, because it still maintained the lofty tone of its 
golden days. Slaves in their palaces, and strangers even 
upon their own thrones, the Spanish nominal kings still 
gave laws to their German relations ; though it is very 
doubtful if the support they afforded was worth the de- 
pendence by which the emperors purchased it. The fate 
of Europe was decided behind the Pyrenees by ignorant 
monks or vindictive favorites. Yet, even in its debase- 
ment, a power must always be formidable which yields to 
none in extent ; which, from custom, if not from the stead- 
fastness of its views, adhered faithfully to one system of 
policy ; which possessed well-disciplined armies and con- 
summate generals ; which, where the sword failed, did not 
scruple to employ the dagger ; and converted even its am- 
bassadors into incendiaries and assassins. What it had lost 
in three quarters of the globe it now sought to regain to 
the eastward, and all Europe was at its mercy, if it could 
succeed in its long-cherished design of uniting with the 
hereditary dominions of Austria all that lay between the 
Alps and the Adriatic. 

To the great alarm of the native states this formidable 
power had gained a footing in Italy, where its continual 
encroachments made the neighboring sovereigns to trem- 
ble for their own possessions. The Pope himself was in 
the most dangerous situation, — hemmed in on both sides 
by the Spanish Viceroys of Naples on the one side, and 
that of Milan upon the other. Venice was confined be- 
tween the Austrian Tyrol and the Spanish territories in 
Milan. Savoy was surrounded by the latter and France. 
Hence the wavering and equivocal policy which, from 
the time of Charles V., had been pursued by the Italian 
states. The double character which pertained to the 
Popes made them perpetually vacillate between two con- 
tradictory systems of policy. If the successors of St. 
Peter found in the Spanish princes their most obedient 



THE THIETY YEARS' WAR. 91 

disciples, and the most steadfast supporters of the Papal 
See, yet the princes of the states of the Church had in 
these monarchs their most dangerous neighbors and most 
formidable opponents. If, in the one capacity, their 
dearest wish was the destruction of the Protestants, and 
the triumph of Austria in the other, they had reason to 
bless the arms of the Protestants which disabled a dan- 
gerous enemy. The one or the other sentiment prevailed, 
according as the love of temporal dominion or zeal for 
spiritual supremacy predominated in the mind of the 
Pope. But the policy of Rome was, on the whole, directed 
to immediate dangers ; and it is well known how far more 
powerful is tlie apprehension of losing a present good 
than anxiety to recover a long lost possession. And thus 
it becomes intelligible how the Pope should first combine 
with Austria for the destruction of heresy, and then con- 
spire with these very heretics for the destruction of 
Austria. Strangely blended are the threads of human 
affairs ! What would have become of the Reformation 
and of the liberties of Germany if the Bishop of Rome 
and the Prince of Rome had had but one interest? 

France had lost with its great Henry all its importance 
and all its weight in tlie political balance of Europe. A 
turbulent minority had destroyed all the benefits of the 
able administration of Henry. Incapable ministers, the 
creatures of court intrigue, squandered in a few years the 
treasures which Sully's economy and Henry's frugality had 
amassed. Scarce able to maintain their groixnd against 
internal factions, they were compelled to resign to other 
hands the helm of European affairs. The same civil war 
which armed Germany against itself excited a similar 
commotion in France ; and Louis XIII. attained majority 
only to wage a war with his own mother and his Prot- 
estant subjects. This party, which had been kept quiet by 
Henry's enlightened policy, now seized the opportunity 
to take up arms, and under the command of some adven- 
turous leaders, began to form themselves into a party 
within the state, and to fix on the strong and powerful 
town of Rochelle as the capital of their intended kingdom. 
Too little of a statesman to sujDpress by a prudent toler- 
ation this civil comniotion in its birth, and too little 



92 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

master of the resources of his kingdom to direct them 
with energy, Louis XIII. was reduced to the degradation 
of 2)urchasing the submission of tlie rebels by large sums 
of money. Though policy might incline him in one point 
of view to assist the Bohemian insurgents against Austria, 
the son of Henry IV. was now compelled to be an inactive 
spectator of their destruction, happy enough if the Cal- 
vinists in his own dominions did not unseasonably bethink 
them of their confederates beyond the Rhine. A great 
mind at the helm of state would have reduced the Prot- 
estants in France to obedience, while it employed them 
to fight for the independence of their German brethren. 
But Henry IV. was no more, and Richelieu had not yet 
revived his system of policy. 

While the glory of France was thus upon the wane, the 
emancipated republic of Holland was completing the 
fabric of its greatness. The enthusiastic courage had not 
yet died away which, enkindled by the House of Orange, 
had converted this mercantile people into a nation of 
heroes, and had enabled them to maintain their independ- 
ence in a bloody war against the Spanish monarchy. 
Aware how much they owed their own liberty to foreign 
support, these republicans were ready to assist their Ger- 
man brethren in a similar cause, and the more so as both 
were opposed to the same enemy, and the liberty of Ger- 
many was the best warrant for that of Holland. But a 
republic which had still to battle for its very existence, 
which, with all its wonderful exertions, was scarce a 
match for the formidable enemy within its own territories, 
could not be expected to withdraw its troops from the 
necessary work of self-defence to employ them with a 
magnanimous policy in protecting foreign states. 

England, too, though now united with Scotland, no 
longer possessed, under the weak James, that influence 
in the affairs of Europe which the governing mind of 
Elizabeth had procured for it. Convinced that the wel- 
fare of her dominions depended on the security of the 
Protestants, this politic princess had never swerved from 
the principle of promoting every enterprise which had 
for its object the diminution of the Austrian power. 
Her successor was no less devoid of capacity to compre- 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 93 

hend, than of vigor to execute, her views. While the 
economical Elizabeth spared not her treasures to support 
the Flemings against Spain, and Henry IV, against the 
League, James abandoned his daughter, his son-in-law, 
and his grandchild to the fury of their enemies. While 
he exhausted his learning to establish the divine right of 
kings, he allowed his own dignity to sink into the dust; 
while he exerted his rhetoric to prove the absolute 
authority of kings, he reminded the people of theii's ; and 
by a useless profusion, sacrificed the chief of his sover- 
eign rights — that of dispensing with his parliament, and 
thus depriving liberty of its organ. An innate horror at 
the sight of a naked sword averted him from the most 
just of wars ; while his favorite Buckingham practised 
on his weakness, and his own complacent vanity ren- 
dered him an easy dupe of Spanish artifice. While his 
son-in-law was ruined, and the inheritance of his grand- 
sion given to others, this weak prince was imbibing, with 
satisfaction, the incense which was offered to him by 
Austria and Spain. To divert his attention from the 
German war, he was amused with the proposal of a 
Spanish marriage for his son, and the ridiculous parent 
encouraged the romantic youth in the foolish project of 
paying his addresses in person to the Spanish princess. 
But his son lost his bride, as his son-in-law lost the crown 
of Bohemia and the Palatine Electorate ; and death alone 
saved him from the danger of closing his pacific reign by 
a war at home, which he never had courage to maintain, 
even at a distance. 

The domestic disturbances which his misgovernment 
had gradually excited burst forth under his unfortunate 
son, and forced him, after some unimportant attempts, to 
renounce all further participation in the German war, in 
oi'der to stem within his own king^dom the rao^e of 
faction. 

Two illustrious monarchs, far unequal in personal 
reputation, but equal in power and desire of fame, made 
the North at this time to be respected. Under the long 
and active reign of Christian lY., Denmark had risen 
into importance. The personal qualifications of this 
prince, an excellent navy, a formidable army, well- 



94 <! THE THIETY YEARS' WAR. 

ordered finances, and prudent alliances, had combined to 
give her prosperity at home and influence abroad. Gus- 
tavus Vasa had rescued Sweden from vassalage, reformed 
it by wise laws, and had introduced, for the first time, 
this newly-organized state into tlie field of Eurojjean 
politics. What this great prince had merely sketched 
in rude outline was filled up by Gustavus Adolphus, his 
still greater grandson. 

These two kingdoms, once unnaturally united and 
enfeebled by tlieir union, had been violently separated at 
the time of the Reformation, and this separation was the 
epoch of their prosperity. Injurious as this compulsory 
union had proved to both kingdoms, equally necessary to 
each apart were neighborly friendship and harmony. 
On both the evangelical church leaned ; both had the 
same seas to protect — a common interest ought to unite 
them against the same enemy. But the hatred which 
had dissolved the union of these monarchies continued 
long after their separation to divide the two nations. 
The Danish kings could not abandon their pretensions to 
the Swedish crown, nor the Swedes banish the remem- 
brance of Danish oppression. The contiguous boundaries 
of the two kingdoms constantly furnished materials for 
international quarrels, while the watchful jealousy of 
both kings, and the unavoidable collision of their com- 
mercial interests in the North Seas, were inexhaustible 
sources of dispute. 

Among the means of which Gustavus Vasa, the founder 
of the Swedish monarchy, availed himself to strengtlien 
his new edifice, the Reformation had been one of the 
principal. A fundamental law of the kingdom excluded 
the adherents of popery from all oftices of the state, and 
prohibited every future sovereign of Sweden from alter- 
ing the religious constitution of the kingdom. But the 
second son and second successor of Gustavus had re- 
lapsed into popery, and his son Sigismund, also King of 
Poland, had been guilty of measures which menaced 
both the constitution and the established church. Headed 
by Charles, Duke of Sudermania, the tliird son of Gus- 
tavus, tlie Estates nuide a courageous resistance, Avhich 
terminated, at last, in an open civil war between the 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 95 

uncle and nej^liew, and between the King and the people. 
Duke Charles, administrator of the kingdom during the 
absence of the king, had availed himself of Sigismund's 
long residence in Poland, and the just displeasure of the 
states, to ingratiate himself with the nation, and grad- 
ually to prepare his way to the throne. His views were 
not a little forwarded by Sigismund's imprudence. A 
general Diet ventured to abolish, in favor of the Pro- 
tector, the rule of primogeniture which Gustavus had 
established in the succession, and placed the Duke of 
Suderraania on the throne, from which Sigismund, with 
his whole posterity, were solemnly excluded. The son 
of the new king (who reigned under the name of Charles 
IX.) was Gustavus Adolphus, whom, as the son of a 
usurper, the adherents of Sigismund refused to recog- 
nize. But if the obligations between monarchy and 
subjects are reciprocal, and states are not to be trans- 
mitted, like a lifeless heirloom, from hand to hand, a 
nation acting with unanimity must have the power of 
renouncing their allegiance to a sovereign who has 
violated his obligations to them, and of filling his place 
by a worthier object. 

Gustavus Adolphus had not completed his seventeenth 
year when the Swedish throne became vacant by the 
death of his father. But the early maturity of his genius 
enabled the Estates to abridge in his favor the legal 
period of minority. With a glorious conquest over him- 
self he commenced a reign which was to have victory for 
its constant attendant, a career which was to begin and 
end in success. The young Countess of Brahe, the 
daughter of a subject, had gained his early affections, 
and he had resolved to share with her the Swedish throne. 
But, constrained by time and circumstances, he made his 
attachment yield to the higher duties of a king, and 
heroism again took exclusive possession of a heart which 
was not destined by nature to confine itself within the 
limits of quiet domestic happiness. 

Christian IV. of Denmark, who had ascended the 
throne before the birth of Gustavus, in an inroad upon 
Sweden, had gained some considerable advantages over 
the father of that hero. Gustavus Adolphus hastened to 



96 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

put an end to this destructive war, and by prudent 

sacrifices obtained a peace in order to turn bis arms 
against the Czar of Muscovy. The questionable fame of 
a conqueror never tempted him to sjsend the blood of his 
subjects in unjust wars; but be never shrunk from a just 
one. His arms were successful against Russia, and 
Sweden was augmented by several important provinces 
on the east. 

In the meantime, Sigismund of Poland retained against 
the son the same sentiments of hostility which the father 
had provoked, and left no artifice untried to shake the 
allegiance of his subjects, to cool the ardor of his friends, 
and to embitter his enemies. Neither the great qualities 
of his rival, nor the repeated proofs of devotion which 
Sweden gave to her loved monarch, could extinguish in 
this infatuated prince the foolish hope of regaining his 
lost throne. All Gustavus' overtures were haughtily 
rejected. Unwillingly was this really peaceful king 
involved in a tedious Avar Avith Poland, in which the 
whole of Livonia and Polish Prussia were successively 
conquered. Though constantly victorious, Gustavus 
Adolphus was always the first to hold out the hand of 
peace. 

This contest between Sweden and Poland falls some- 
where about the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 
Germany, with which it is in some measure connected. 
It was enough that Sigismund, himself a Roman Catholic, 
was disputing the Swedish crown with a Protestant 
prince, to assure him the active support of Spain and 
Austria ; while a double relationship to the Emperor 
gave him a still stronger claim to his protection. It was 
his reliance on this powerful assistance that chiefly 
encouraged the King of Poland to continue the war, 
which had hithei'to turned out so unfavorably for him, 
and the courts of Madrid and Vienna failed not to 
encourage him by high-sounding promises. While Sigis- 
mund lost one place after another in Livonia, Courland, 
and Prussia, he saw his ally in Germany advancing from 
conquest after conquest to unlimited power. No wonder 
then if his aversion to peace kept ]iace Avith his losses. 
The vehemence Avith Avhich he nourished his chimerical 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 97 

hopes blinded him to the artful policy of his confederates, 
who at his expense were keeping the Swedish hero 
employed, in order to overturn, without opposition, the 
liberties of Germany, and then to seize on the exhausted 
North as an easy conquest. One circumstance which had 
not been calculated on — the magnanimity of Gustavus — 
overthrew this deceitful policy. An eight years' war in 
P<)land, so far from exhausting the power of Sweden, 
hnd only served to mature the military genius of Gustavus, 
to inure the Swedish army to warfare, and insensibly to 
perfect that system of tactics by which they were after- 
wards to perform such wonders in Germany. 

After this necessary digression on the existing circum- 
stances of Europe, I now resume the thread of my history. 

Ferdinand had regained his dominions, but had not 
indemnified hhnself for the expenses of recovering them. 
A sum of forty millions of florins, which the confiscations 
in Bohemia and Moravia had produced, would have 
sufficed to reimburse both himself and his allies ; but the 
Jesuits and his favorites soon squandered this sum, large 
as it was. Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, to whose vic- 
torious arm, principally, the Emperor owed the recovery 
of his dominions; who, in the service of religion and the 
Emperor, had sacrificed his near relation, had the 
strongest claims on his gratitude ; and, moreover, in a 
treaty which, before the war, the duke had concluded 
with the Emperor, he had expressly stipulated for the 
reimbursement of all expenses. Ferdinand felt the full 
weight of the obligation imposed upon him by this treaty 
and by these services, but he was not disposed to discharge 
it at his own cost. His purpose was to bestow a brilliant 
reward upon the duke, but without detriment to himself. 
How could this be done better than at the expense of the 
unfortunate prince who, by his revolt, had given the 
Emperor a right to punish him, and whose offences 
might be painted in colors strong enough to justify the 
most violent measures under the appearance of law. 
That, then, Maximilian may be rewarded, Frederick 
must be further persecuted and totally ruined ; and to 
defray the expenses of the old war a new one must be 
commenced. 



98 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

But a still stronger motive combined to enforce the 
first. Hitherto Ferdinand had been contending for 
existence alone ; he had been fulfilling no other duty 
than that of self-defence. But now, when victory gave 
him freedom to act, a higher duty occurred to him, and 
he remembered the vow which he had made at Loretto 
and at Rome, to his generalissimo, the Holy Virgin, to 
extend her worship even at the risk of his crown and 
life. With this object the oppression of the Protestants 
was inseparably connected. More favorable circum- 
stances for its accomplishment could not offer than those 
which presented themselves at the close of the Bohemian 
war. Neither the power, nor a pretext of right, were 
now wanting to enable him to place the Palatinate in the 
hands of the Catholics, and the importance of this change 
to the Catholic interests in Germany would be incalcul- 
able. Thus, in rewarding the Duke of Bavaria with the 
spoils of his relation, he at once gratified his meanest 
passions and fulfilled his most exalted duties ; he crushed 
an enemy whom he hated, and spared his avarice a 
painful sacrifice, while he believed he was winning an 
heavenly crown. 

In the Emperor's cabinet the ruin of Frederick had 
been resolved upon long before fortune had decided 
against him ; but it was only after this event that they 
ventured to direct against him the thunders of arbitrary 
power. A decree of the Emperor, destitute of all the 
formalities required on such occasions by the laws of the 
Empire, pronounced the Elector, and three other princes 
who had borne arms for him at Silesia and Bohemia, as 
offenders against the imperial majesty, and disturbers of 
the public peace, under the ban of the empire, and 
deprived them of their titles and territories. The execu- 
tion of this sentence against Frederick, namely, the seizure 
of his lands, was, in further contempt of law, committed 
to Spain as Sovereign of the circle of Burgundy, to the 
Duke of Bavaria, and the League. Had the Evangelic 
Union been worthy of the name it bore, and of the cause 
which it pretended to defend, insuperable obstacles might 
have prevented the execution of the sentence ; but it was 
hopeless for a power which was far from a match even 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 99 

for the Spanish troojjs in the Lower Palatinate, to con- 
tend against the united strength of the Emperor, Bavaria, 
and the League. The sentence of proscription pronounced 
upon the Elector soon detached the free cities from the 
Union ; and the princes quickly followed their example. 
Fortunate in preserving their own dominions, they aban- 
doned the Elector, their former chief, to the Emperor's 
mercy, renounced the Union, and vowed never to revive 
it again. 

But while thus ingloriously the German princes deserted 
the unfortunate Frederick, and while Bohemia, Silesia, 
and Moravia submitted to the Emperor, a single man, a 
soldier of fortune, whose only treasure was his sword, 
Ernest Count Mansfeld, dared, in the Bohemian town of 
Pilsen, to defy the whole power of Austria. Left without 
assistance after the battle of Prague by the Elector, to 
whose service he had devoted himself, and even uncertain 
whether Frederick would thank him for his perseverance, 
he alone for some time held out against the imperialists, 
till the garrison, mutinying for want of pay, sold the town 
to the Emperor. Undismayed by this reverse, he imme- 
diately commenced new levies in the Upper Palatinate, 
and enlisted the disbanded troops of the Union. A new 
army of twenty thousand men was soon assembled 
under his banners, the more formidable to the provinces 
which might be the object of its attack, because it must sub- 
sist by plunder. Uncertain where this swarm might light, 
the neighboring bishops trembled for their rich posses- 
sions, which offered a tempting prey to its ravages. But, 
pressed by the Duke of Bavaria, who now entered the 
Upper Palatinate, Mansfeld was compelled to retire. 
Eluding, by a successful stratagem, the Bavarian general, 
Tilly, who was in pursuit of him, he suddenly appeared 
in the Lower Palatinate, and there wreaked upon the 
bishoprics of the Rhine the severities he had designed for 
those of Franconia. While the imperial and Bavarian 
allies thus overran Bohemia, the Spanish general, Spinola, 
had penetrated with a numerous army from the Nether- 
lands, into the Lower Palatinate, which, however, the 
pacification of Ulm permitted the Union to defend. But 
their measures were so badly concerted that one place 



100 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

after another fell into the hands of the Spaniards •, and at 
last, when the Union broke up, the greater part of tlie 
country was in the possession of Spain. The Spanish 
general, Corduba, who commanded these troops after the 
recall of Spinola, hastily raised the siege of Frankenthal, 
when Mansfeld entered the Lower Palatinate. But 
instead of driving the Spaniards out of this province, he 
hastened across the Rhine to secure for his needy troops 
shelter and subsistence in Alsace. The open countries 
on which this swarm of maurauders threw themselves 
were converted into frightful deserts, and only by enor- 
mous contributions could the cities purchase an exemption 
from i^lunder. Reinforced by this expedition, Mansfeld 
again appeared on the Rhine to cover the Lower Pala- 
tinate. 

So long as such an arm fought for him the cause of the 
Elector Frederick was not irretrievably lost. New 
prospects began to open, and misfortune raised up friends 
who had been silent during his prosperity. King James 
of England, who had looked on with indifference while 
his son-in-law lost the Bohemian crown, was aroused from 
his insensibility when the very existence of his daughter 
and grandson was at stake, and the victorious enemy 
ventured an attack upon the Electorate. Late enough, 
he at last opened his treasures, and hastened to afford 
su^jplies of money and troops, first to the Union, which 
at that time was defending the Lower Palatinate, 
and afterwards, when they retired, to Count Mansfeld. 
By his means his near relation. Christian, King of Den- 
mark, was induced to afford his active support. At the 
same time, the approaching expiration of the truce 
between Spain and Holland deprived the Emperor of all 
the supplies which otherwise he might expect from the 
side of the Netherlands. More important still was the 
assistance which the Palatinate received from Transyl- 
vania and Hungary. The cessation of hostilities between 
Gabor and the Emperor was scarcely at an end, when 
this old and formidable enemy of Austria overran Hun- 
gary anew, and caused himself to be crowned king in 
Presburg. So rapid was his progress that, to protect 
Austria and Hungary, Boucquoi was obliged to evacuate 



I'HE THIRTY YEARS' WAIt. lOl 

Bohemia. This brave general met his death at the siege 
of Keuhausel, as, shortly before, the no less valiant 
Dampierre had fallen before Presburg._ Gabor's march 
into the Austrian territory was irresistible ; the old 
Count Thurn, and several other distinguished Bohemians, 
had united their hatred and their strength with this 
irreconcilable enemy of Austria. A vigorous attack on 
the side of Germany, while Gabor pressed the Emperor 
on that of Hungary, might have retrieved the fortunes of 
Frederick ; but, unfortunately, the Bohemians and Ger- 
mans had always laid down their arms when Gabor took 
the field ; and the latter was always exhausted at the very 
moment that the former began to recover their vigor. 

Meanwhile Frederick had not delayed to join his pro- 
tector, Mansfeld. In disguise he entered the Lower Pala- 
tinate, of which the possession was at that time disputed 
bet wen Mansfeld and the Bavarian general, Tilly, the 
Upper Palatinate having been long conquered. A ray of 
hope shone upon him as, from the wreck of the Union, 
new friends came forward. A former member of the 
Union, George Frederick, Margrave of Baden, had for 
some time been engaged in assembling a military force, 
which soon amounted to a considerable army. Its des- 
tination was kept a secret till he suddenly took the 
field and joined Mansfeld. Before commencing the war, 
he resigned his Margravate to his son, in the hope of 
eluding, by this precaution, the Emperor's revenge, if his 
enterprise should be unsuccessful. His neighbor, the 
Duke of Wirtemberg, likewise began to augment his 
military force. The courage of the Palatine revived, 
and he labored assiduously to renew the Protestant 
Union. It was now time for Tilly to consult for his own 
safety, and he hastily summoned the Spanish troops, 
under Corduba, to his assistance. But while the enemy 
was uniting his strength, Mansfeld and the Margrave 
separated, and the latter was defeated by the Bavarian 
general near Wimpfen (1622). 

To defend a king whom his nearest relation persecuted, 
and who was deserted even by his own father-in-law, 
there had come forward an adventurer without money, 
and whose very legitimacy was questioned. A sovereign. 



102 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

had resigned possessions over which he reigned in peace 
to hazard the uncertain fortune of war in behalf of a 
stranger. And now another soldier of fortune, poor in 
territorial possessions, but rich in illustrious ancestry, 
undertook the defence of a cause which the former des- 
paired of. Christian, Duke of Brunswick, administrator 
of Halberstadt, seemed to have learnt from Count Mans- 
feld the secret of keeping in the field an army of twenty 
thousand men without money. Impelled by youthful pre- 
sumption, and influenced partly by the wish of establish- 
ing his reputation at the expense of the Roman Catholic 
l^riesthood, whom he cordially detested, and partly by 
a thirst for plunder, he assembled a considerable army in 
Lower Saxony, under the pretext of espousing the defence 
of Frederick, and of the liberties of Germany. " God's 
Friend, Priests' Foe," was the motto he chose for his 
coinage, which was struck out of church plate ; and his 
conduct belied one-half at least of the device. 

The pi-ogress of these banditti was, as usual, marked 
by the most frightful devastation. Enriched by the 
spoils of the chapters of Lower Saxony and Westphalia, 
they gathered strength to plunder the bishoprics upon 
the Upper Rhine. Driven from thence, both by friends 
and foes, the Administrator approached the town of 
Hoechst on the Maine, which he crossed after a murderous 
action with Tilly, who disputed with him the passage of 
the river. With the loss of half his army he reached the 
opposite bank, where he quickly collected his shattered 
troops, and formed a junction with Mansfeld. Pursued 
by Tilly, this united host threw itself again into Alsace, 
to repeat their former ravages. While the Elector Fred- 
erick followed, almost like a fugitive mendicant, this 
swarm of plunderers, which acknowledged him as its lord, 
and dignified itself with his name, his friends were 
busily endeavoring to effect a i-econciliation between 
him and the Emperor. Ferdinand took care not to 
deprive them of all hope of seeing the Palatine restored 
to his dominion. Full of artifice and dissimulation, he 
pretended to be willing to enter into a negotiation, hoping 
thereby to cool their ardor in the field, and to prevent 
them from driving matters to extremity. James L, ever 



THE THIRTY YEAES* WAR. 103 

the dupe of Spanish cunning, contributed not a little, by 
his foolish intermeddling, to promote the Emperor's 
schemes. Ferdinand insisted that Frederick, if he would 
apjoeal to his clemency, should, first of all, lay down his 
arms, and James considered this demand extremely 
reasonable. At his instigation the Elector dismissed 
his only real defenders, Count Mansfeld and the Adminis- 
trator, and in Holland awaited his own fate from the 
mercy of the Emperor. 

Mansfeld and Duke Christian were now at a loss for 
some new name ; the cause of the Elector had not set 
them in motion, so his dismissal could not disarm them. 
War was their object; it was all the same to them in 
whose cause or name it was waged. After some vain 
attempts on the jDart of Mansfeld to be received into the 
Emperor's service, both marched into Lorraine, where 
the excesses of their troops spread terror even to the 
heart of France. Here they long waited in vain for a 
master willing to purchase their services ; till the Dutch, 
pressed by the Spanish General Spinola, offered to take 
them into pay. After a bloody fight at Fleurus with 
the Spaniards, who attempted to intercept them, they 
reached Holland, where their appearance compelled the 
Spanish general forthwith to raise the siege of Bergen- 
op-Zoora, But even Holland was soon weary of these 
dangerous guests, and availed herself of the first moment 
to get rid of their unwelcome assistance. Mansfeld 
allowed his troops to recruit themselves for new enter- 
prises in the fertile province of East Friezeland. Duke 
Christian, passionately enamoured of the Electress Pala- 
tine, with whom he had become acquainted in Holland, 
and more disposed for war than ever, led back his army 
into Lower Saxony, bearing that princess's glove in his 
hat, and on his standards the motto, " All for God and 
Her." Neither of these adventurers had as yet run their 
career in this war. 

All the imperial territories were now free from the 
enemy ; the Union was dissolved ; the Margrave of 
Baden, Duke Christian, and Mansfeld driven from the 
field, and the Palatinate overrun by the executive troops 
of the empire. Manheim and Heidelberg were in possession 



104 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

of Bavaria, and Frankenthal was shortly afterwards ceded 
to the Spaniards. The Palatine, in a distant corner of 
Holland, awaited the disgraceful permission to apjjease, 
by abject submission, the vengeance of the Emperor; 
and an Electoral Diet was at last summoned, to decide 
his fate. That fate, however, had been long before 
decided at the court of the Emperor ; though now, for 
the fii'st time, were circumstances favorable for giving 
publicity to the decision. After his past measures 
towards the Elector, Ferdinand believed that a sincere 
reconciliation was not to be hoped for. The violent 
course he had once begun must be completed sucessfully, 
or recoil upon himself. What was already lost was 
irrecoverable ; Frederick could never hope to regain his 
dominions ; and a prince without territory and without 
subjects had little chance of retaining the electoral crown. 
Deeply as the Palatine had offended against the House 
of Austria, the services of the Duke of Bavaria wei-e no 
less meritorious. If the House of Austria and the Roman 
Catholic church had much to dread from the resentment 
and religious rancor of the Palatine family, they had as 
much to hope from the gratitude and religious zeal of 
the Bavarian. Lastly, by the cession of the Palatine 
Electorate to Bavaria, the Roman Catholic religion would 
obtain a decisive preponderance in the Electoral College, 
and secure a permanent triumph in Germany. 

The last circumstance was sufficient to win the support 
of the three Ecclesiastical Electors to this innovation ; 
and among the Protestants the vote of Saxony was alone 
of any importance. But could John George be expected 
to dispute with the Emperor a right, without which he 
would expose to question his own title to the electoral 
dignity? To a prince whom descent, dignity, and 
political 230wer placed at the head of the Protestant 
church in Germany, nothing, it is true, ought to be more 
sacred than the defence of the rights of that church 
against all the encroachments of the Roman Catholics. 
But the question here was not whether the interests of 
the Protestants were to be supported against the Roman 
Catholics, but which of two religions equally detested, 
the Calvinistic and the Popish, was to triumph over the 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 105 

Other ; to which of the two enemies, equally dangerous, 
the Palatinate was to be assigned ; and in this clashing 
of opposite duties, it was natural that private hate and 
private gain should determine the event. The born 
protector of the liberties of Germany, and of the Prot- 
estant religion, encouraged the Emperor to dispose of the 
Palatinate by his imperial prei'ogative ; and to apprehend 
no resistance on the part of Saxony to his measures on 
the mere ground of form. If the Elector was afterwards 
disposed to retract this consent, Ferdinand himself, by 
driving the Evangelical preachers from Bohemia, was the 
cause of this change of opinion ; and, in the eyes of the 
Elector, the transference of the Palatine Electorate to 
Bavaria ceased to be illegal as soon as Ferdinand was 
prevailed upon to cede Lusatia to Saxony, in consideration 
of six millions of dollars, as the expenses of the war. 

Thus, in defiance of all Protestant Germany, and in 
mockery of the fundamental laws of the empire, which, 
at his election, he had sworn to maintain, Ferdinand at 
Ratisbon solemnly invested the Duke of Bavaria with the 
Palatinate, without prejudice, as the form ran, to the 
rights which the relations or descendants of P'rederick 
might afterwards establish. That unfortunate prince 
thus saw himself irrevocably driven from his possessions, 
without having been even heard before the tribunal which 
condemned him — a privilege which the law allo^vs to the 
meanest subject, and even to the most atrocious criminal. 
This violent step at last opened the eyes of the King 
of England ; and as the negotiations for the marriage of 
his son with the Infanta of Spain were now broken off, 
James began seriously to espouse the cause of his son-in- 
law. A change in the French ministry had placed Cardi- 
nal Richelieu at the head of affairs, and this fallen 
kingdom soon began to feel that a great mind was at the 
helm of state. The attempts of the Spanish Viceroy in 
Milan to gain possession of the Valtelline, and thus to 
form a junction with the Austrian hereditary dominions, 
revived the olden dread of this power, and with it the 
policy of Henry the Great. The marriage of the Prince 
of Wales with Henrietta of France established a close 
union between the two crowns; and to this alliance, 



106 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

Holland, Denmark, and some of the Italian states presently 
acceded. Its object was to expel, by force of arms, 
Spain from the Valtelline, and to compel Austria to 
reinstate Frederick ; but only the first of these designs 
was prosecuted with vigor. James I. died, and Charles 
I., involved in disputes with his Parliament, could not 
bestow attention on the affairs of Germany. Savoy and 
Venice withheld their assistance ; and the French min- 
ister thought it necessary to subdue the Huguenots at 
home before he supported the German Protestants 
against the Emperor. Great as were the hopes which 
had been formed from this alliance, they were yet equalled 
by the disappointment of the event. 

Mansfeld, deprived of all support, remained inactive on 
the Lower Rhine ; and Duke Christian of Brunswick, 
after an unsuccessful campaign, was a second time driven 
out of Germany. A fresh irruption of Bethlen Gabor 
into Moravia, frustrated by the want of support from the 
Germans, terminated, like all the rest, in a formal peace 
with the Emperor. The Union was no more ; no Prot- 
estant prince was in arms ; and on the frontiers of Lower 
Germany, the Bavarian General Tilly, at the head of a 
victorious army, encamped in the Protestant territory. 
The movements of the Duke of Brunswick had drawn 
him into this quarter, and even into the circle of Lower 
Saxony, when he made himself master of the Adminis- 
trator's magazines at Lippstadt. The necessity of observ- 
ing this enemy, and preventing him from new inroads, 
was the pretext assigned for continuing Tilly's stay in 
the country. But, in truth, both Mansfeld and Duke 
Christian had, from want of money, disbanded their 
armies, and Count Tilly had no enemy to dread. Why, 
then, still burden the country with his presence ? 

It is difficult, amidst the uproar of contending parties, 
to distinguish the voice of truth ; but certainly it was 
matter for alarm that the League did not lay down its 
arms. The premature rejoicings of the Roman Catholics, 
too, were calculated to increase apprehension.^ The 
Emperor and the League stood armed and victorious in 
Germany without a power to oppose them, should they 
venture to attack the Protestant states and to annul the 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 107 

religious treaty. Had Ferdinand been in reality far 
from disposed to abuse his conquests, still the defence- 
less position of the Protestants was most likely to sug- 
gest the temptation. Obsolete conventions could not 
bind a prince who thought that he owed all to religion, 
and believed that a religious creed would sanctify any 
deed, however violent. Upper Germany was already 
overpowered. Lower Germany alone could check his 
desjDotic authority. Here the Protestants still predomi- 
nated ; the church had been forcibly deprived of most of 
its endowments ; and the present appeared a favorable 
moment for recovering these lost possessions. A great 
part of the strength of the Lower German princes con- 
sisted in these Chapters, and the plea of restoring its 
own to the church afforded an excellent pretext for 
weakening these princes. 

Unpardonable would have been their negligence had 
they remained inactive in this danger. The remem- 
brance of the ravages which Tilly's army had committed 
in Lower Saxony was too recent not to arouse- the 
Estates to measures of defence. With all haste the 
circle of Lower Saxony began to arm itself. Extraor- 
dinary contributions were levied, troops collected, and 
magazines filled. Negotiations for subsidies were set on 
foot with Venice, Holland, and England. They deliber- 
ated, too, what power should be placed at the head of 
the confederacy. The kings of the Sound and the Baltic, 
the natural allies of this circle, would not see with indif- 
ference the Emperor treating it as a conqueror, and 
establishing himself as their neighbor on the shores of the 
North Sea. The twofold interests of religion and policy 
urged them to put a stop to his progress in Lower Ger- 
many. Christian IV., of Denmark, as Duke of Holstein, 
was himself a prince of this circle, and by considerations 
equally powerful Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was 
induced to join the confederacy. 

These two kings vied with each other for the honor of 
defending Lower Saxony, and of opposing the formidable 
power of Austria. Each offered to raise a well- disciplined 
army, and to lead it in person. His victorious campaigns 
against Moscow and Poland gave weight to the promises 



108 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

of the King of Sweden. The shores of the Baltic were 
full of the name of Gustavus. But the fame of his rival 
excited the envy of the Danish monarch ; and the more 
success he promised himself in this camjjaign the less 
disjDOsed was he to show any favor to his envied neigh- 
bor. Both laid their conditions and plans before the 
English ministry, and Christian IV. finally succeeded in 
outbidding his rival. Gustavus Adolphus, for his own 
security, had demanded the cession of some places of 
strength in Germany, where he himself had no territories 
to afford, in case of need, a place of refuge for his troops. 
Christian IV. possessed Holstein and Jutland, through 
which, in the event of a defeat, he could always secure a 
retreat. 

Eager to get the start of his competitor, the King of 
Denmark hastened to take the field. Appointed general- 
issimo of the circle of Lower Saxony, he soon had an 
army of sixty thousand men in motion ; the administrator 
of Magdeburg, and the Dukes of Brunswick and Meck- 
lenburgh entered into an alliance with him. Encouraged 
by the hope of assistance from England, and the posses- 
sion of so large a force, he flattered himself he should be 
able to terminate the war in a single campaign. 

At Vienna it was ofiicially notified that the only object 
of these preparations was the protection of the circle, and 
the maintenance of the peace. But the negotiations with 
Holland, England, and even France, the extraordinary 
exertions of the circle, and the raising of so formidable 
an army, seemed to have something more in view than 
defensive operations, and to contemplate nothing less than 
the complete restoration of the Elector Palatine, and the 
humiliation of the dreaded power of Austria. 

After negotiations, exhortations, commands, and threats 
had in vain been employed by the Emperor in order to 
induce the King of Denmark and the circle of Lower 
Saxony to lay down their arms, hostilities commenced, 
and Lower Germany became the theatre of war. Count 
Tilly, marching along the left bank of the Weser, 
made himself master of all the passes as far as ]\rinden 
After an unsuccessful attack on Nieuburg, he crossed the 
xiver and overran the principality of Calemberg, in wliich 



THE THIKTY YEAKS' WAR. 109 

he quartered his troops. The king conducted his oper- 
ations on the right bank of the river, and spread his 
forces over the territories of Brunswick, but having 
weakened his main body by too powerful detachments, 
he could not engage in any enterprise of importance. 
Aware of his 02:>ponent's superiority, he aA'oided a decisive 
action as anxiously as the general of the League sought it. 

With the exception of the troops from the Spanish 
Netherlands, which had poured into the Lower Palatinate, 
the Emperor had hitherto made use only of the arms of 
Bavaria and the League in Germany. Maximilian con- 
ducted the war as executor of the ban of the empire, and 
Tilly, who commanded the army of execution, was in the 
Bavarian service. The Emperor owed superiority in the 
field to Bavaria and the League, and his fortunes were in 
their hands. This dependence on their good-will but ill 
accorded with the grand schemes which the brilliant 
commencement of the war had led the imperial cabinet 
to form. 

However active the League had shown itself in the 
Emperior's defence, while thereby it secured its own 
welfare, it could not be expected that it would enter as 
readily into his views of conquest. Or, if they still con- 
tinued to lend their armies for that purpose, is was too 
much to be feared that they w^ould share with the Em- 
peror nothing but general odium, while they appropriated 
to themselves all advantages. A strong army under his 
own orders could alone free him from this debasing de- 
pendence upon Bavaria, and restore to him his former 
pre-eminence in Germany. But the war had already ex- 
hausted the imperial dominions, and they were unequal 
to the expense of such an armament. In these circum- 
stances nothing could be more welcome to the Emperor 
than the proposal with which one of his officers surprised 
him. 

This was Count Wallenstein, an experienced officer, 
and the richest nobleman in Bohemia. From his earliest 
youth he had been in the service of the House of Austria, 
and several campaigns against the Turks, Venetians, 
Bohemians, Hungarians, and Transylvanians had estab- 
lished his reputation. He was present as colonel at the 



110 '£HE -THIRTY years' WAU. 

battle of Prague, and afterwards, as major-general, had 
defeated a Hungarian force in Moravia. The Emperor's 
gratitude was equal to his services, and a large share of 
the confiscated estates of the Bohemian insurgents was 
their reward. Possessed of immense projDerty, excited by 
ambitious views, confident in his own good fortune, and 
still more encouraged by the existing state of circum- 
stances, he offered, at his own expense and that of his 
friends, to raise and clothe an army for the Emperor, and 
even undertook the cost of maintaining it, if he were 
allowed to augment it to fifty thousand men. The project 
was universally ridiculed as the chimerical offspring of a 
visionary brain ; but the offer was highly valuable, if its 
promises should be but partially fulfilled. Certain circles 
in Bjhemia were assigued to him as depots, with au- 
thority to appoint his own ofiicers. In a few months he 
had twenty thousand men under arms, with which, quit- 
ting the Austrian territories, he soon afterwards appeared 
on the frontiers of Lower Saxony with thirty thousand. 
The Emperor had lent tliis armament nothing but his 
name. The reputation of the general, the prospect of 
rapid promotion, and the hope of plundei', attracted to 
his standard adventurers from all quarters of Germany ; 
and even sovereign princes, stimulated by the desire of 
glory or of gain, offered to raise regiments for the service 
of Austria. 

Now, therefore, for the first time ip this war, an impe- 
rial army appeared in Germany ; an event which, if it was 
menacing to the Protestants, was scarcely more accept- 
able to the Catholics. Wallenstein had orders to unite 
his army with the troops of the League, and in conjunc- 
tion with the Bavai-ian general to attack the King of 
Denmark. Bat, long jealous of Tilly's fame, he showed 
no disposition to share with him the laurels of the cam- 
paign or in the splendors of his rival's achievements to 
dim the lustre of his own. His plan of operations was to 
support the latter, but to act entirely independently of 
him. As he had not resources, like Tilly, for supplying 
the wants of his army, he was obliged to march his troops 
into fertile countries which had not as yet suffered from 
war. Disobeying, therefore, the order to form a junc- 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. Ill 

tion with the general of the League, he marched into 
the territories of Halberstadt and Magdeburg, and at 
Dessau made himself master of the Elbe. All the lands 
on either bank of this river were at his command, and 
from them he could either attack the King of Denmark 
in the rear, or, if prudent, enter the territories of that 
prince. 

Christian IV, was fully aware of the danger of his situa- 
tion between two such powerful armies. He had already 
been joined by the administrator of Halberstadt, who 
had lately returned from Holland ; he now also acknowl- 
edged Mansfeld, whom previously he had refused to 
recognize, and supported him to the best of his ability. 
Mansfeld amply requited this service. He alone kept 
at bay the army of Wallenstein upon the Elbe, and pre- 
vented its junction with that of Tilly, and a combined 
attack on the King of Denmark. Notwithstanding the 
enemy's superiority, this intrepid general even ap- 
proached the bridge of Dessau and ventured to entrench 
himself in the presence of the imperial lines. But 
attacked in the rear by the whole force of the Imperial- 
ists, he was obliged to yield to superior numbers, and to 
abandon his post with the loss of three thousand killed. 
After this defeat Mansfeld withdrew into Brandenburg, 
where he soon recruited and reinforced his army, and 
suddenly turned into Silesia, with the view of marching 
from thence into Hungary, and, in conjunction with 
Bethlen Gabor, carrying the war into the heart of Aus- 
tria. As the Austrian dominions in that quarter were 
entirely defenceless, Wallenstein received immediate 
orders to leave the King of Denmark, and if possible to 
intercept Mansfeld's progress through Silesia. 

The diversion which this movement of Mansfeld had 
made in the plans of Wallenstein enabled the king to 
detach a part of his force into Westphalia, to seize the 
bishoprics of Munster and Osnaburg. To check this 
movement, Tilly suddenly moved from the Weser; but 
the operations of Duke Christian, who threatened the 
territories of the League with an inroad in the direction 
of Hesse, and to j-emove thither the seat of war, recalled 
him as rapidly from Westphalia. In order to keep open 



112 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

his communications with these provinces, and to prevent 
the junction of the enemy with the Landgrave of Hesse, 
Tilly hastily seized all the tenable posts on the Werha 
and Fulda, and took up a strong position in Minden, at 
the foot of the Hessian Mountains, and at the confluence 
of these rivers with the Weser. He soon made himself 
master of Gottingen, the key of Brunswick and Hesse, 
and was meditating a similar attack upon Nordheim, 
when the king advanced upon him with his whole army. 
After throwing into this place the necessary supplies for 
a long siege, the latter attempted to open a new passage 
through Eichsfield and Thuringia into the territories of 
the League, He had already reached Dunderstadt when 
Tilly, by forced marches, came up with him. As the 
army of Tilly, which had been reinforced by some of 
Wallenstein's regiments, was superior in numbers to his 
own, the king, in order to avoid a battle, retreated 
towards Brunswick. But Tilly incessantly harassed his 
retreat, and after three days' skirmishing he was at 
length obliged to await the enemy near the village of 
Lutter in Barenberg. The Danes began the attack with 
great bravery, and thrice did their intrepid monarch lead 
them in person against the enemy ; but at length the 
superior numbers and discipline of the Imperialists pre- 
vailed, and the general of the League obtained a com- 
plete victory. The Danes lost sixty standards and their 
whole artillery, baggage, and ammunition. Several offi- 
cers of distinction and about four thousand men were 
killed in the field of battle, and several companies of 
foot in the flight, who had thrown themselves into the 
town-house of Lutter, laid down their arms and surren- 
dered to the conqueror. 

The king fled with his cavalry and soon collected the 
wreck of his army which had survived this serious 
defeat. Tilly pursued his victory, made himself master 
of the Weser and Brunswick, and forced the king to 
retire into Bremen. Rendered more cautious by defeat, 
the latter now stood upon the defensive, and determined 
at all events to prevent the enemy from crossing the 
Elbe. But while he threw garrisons into every tenable 
place, he reduced his own diminished army to inactivity; 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 113 

and one after another his scattered troops were either 
defeated or dispersed. The forces of the League in 
'iommand of the Weser spread themselves along tlie Elbe 
and Havel, and everywhere di'ove the Danes before 
them. Tilly, himself crossing the Elbe, penetrated with 
his victorious army into Brandenburg, while Wallenstein 
•entered Holstein to remove the seat of war to the king's 
■own dominions. 

This general had just returned from Hungary, whither 
he had pursued Mansfeld, without being able to obstruct 
his march or prevent his junction with Bethlen Gabor. 
Constantly persecuted by fortune, but always superior to 
his fate, Mansfeld had made his way against countless 
difficulties through Silesia and Hungary to Transylvania, 
where, after all, he was not very welcome. Relying upon 
the assistance of England, and a powerful diversion in 
Lower Saxony, Gabor had again broken the truce with 
the Emperor. But in place of the expected diversion in 
his favor, Mansfeld had drawn upon himself the whole 
strength of Wallenstein, and instead of bringing, re- 
quired pecuniary assistance. The want of concert in the 
Protestant counsels cooled Gabor's ardor ; and he has- 
tened, as usual, to avert the coming storm by a speedy 
peace. Firmly determined, however, to break it, with 
the first ray of hope, he directed Mansfeld in the mean- 
time to apply for assistance to Venice. 

Cut off from Germany, and unable to support the 
weak remnant of his troops in Hungary, Mansfeld sold 
his artillery and baggage train and disbanded his soldiers. 
With a few followers he proceeded through Bosnia and 
Dalmatia towards Venice. New schemes swelled his 
bosom ; but his career was ended. Fate, which had so 
restlessly sported with him throughout, now prepared 
for him a peaceful grave in Dalmatia. Death overtook 
him in the vicinity of Zara in 1626 ; and a short time 
before him died the faithful companion of his fortunes. 
Christian, Duke of Brunswick — two men worthy of 
immortality had they but been as superior to their times 
as they were to tlieir adversities. 

The King of Denmark, Avith his whole army, was 
unable to cope with Tilly alone; much less, therefore, 



114 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

with a shattered force could he hold his ground against 
the two imperial generals. The Danes retired from all 
their posts on the Weser, the Elbe, and the Havel, and 
the army of Wallenstein poured like a torrent into 
Brandenburg, Mecklenbnrgh, Holstein, and Sleswick. 
That general, too proud to act in conjunction with 
another, had despatched Tilly across the Elbe to watch, 
as he gave out, the motions of the Dutch in that quarter, 
but in reality that he might terminate the war against 
the king, and reap for himself the fruits of Tilly's con- 
quests. Christian had now lost all his fortresses in the 
German States, with the exception of Gluckstadt; his 
armies were defeated or dispersed ; no assistance came 
from Germany; from England little consolation; AvhiJe 
his confederates in Lower Saxony were at the mercy of 
the conquex'or. The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel had been 
forced by Tilly, soon after the battle of Lutter, to re- 
nounce the Danish alliance. Wallenstein's formidable 
appearance before Berlin reduced the Elector of Bran- 
denburg to submission, and compelled him to recognize 
as legitimate Maximilian's title to the Palatine Elector- 
ate. The greater part of Mecklenbnrgh was now overrun 
by imperial troops, and both dukes, as adherents of the 
King of Denmark, placed under the ban of the empire 
and driven from their dominions. The defence of the 
German liberties against illegal encroachments was pun- 
ished as a crime deserving the loss of all dignities 
and territories ; and yet this was but the prelude to the 
still more crying enormities which shortly followed. 

The secret how Wallenstein had purposed to fulfil his 
extravagant designs was now manifest. He had learned 
the lesson from Count Mansfeld ; but the scholar sur- 
passed his master. On the principle that war must sup- 
port war, Mansfeld and the Duke of Brunswick had 
subsisted their troops by contributions levied indis- 
criminately on friend and enemy ; but this predatory life 
was attended with all the inconvenience and insecurity 
which accompany robbery. Like a fugitive banditti, 
they were obliged to steal through exasperated and 
vigilant enemies ; to roam from one end of Germany to 
another ; to watch their opportunity with anxiety, and 



- THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 115 

to abandon the most fertile territories whenever they 
were defended by a superior army. If Mansfeld and 
Duke Christian had done such great things in the face of 
these difficulties, what might not be expected if the 
obstacles were removed ; when the army raised was 
numerous enough to overawe in itself the most powerful 
states of the empire; when the name of the Emperor 
insured impunity to every outrage ; and when, under the 
highest authority, and at the head of an overwhelming 
force, the same system of warfare was pursued which 
these two adventurers had adopted at their own risk, 
and with only an untrained multitude ? 

Wallenstein had all this in view when he made his 
bold offer to the Emperor, which now seemed extrava- 
gant to no one. The more his army was augmented the 
less cause was there to fear for its subsistence, because it 
could irresistibly bear down on the refractory states ; the 
more violent its outrages the more probable was im- 
punity. Towards hostile states it had the plea of right ; 
towards the favorably disposed it could allege necessity. 
The inequality, too, with which it dealt out its oppres- 
sions prevented any dangerous union among the states, 
while the exhaustion of their territories deprived them 
of the power of vengeance. Thus the whole of Ger- 
many became a kind of magazine for the imperial army, 
and the Emperor was enabled to deal with the other 
states as absolutely as with his own hereditary domin- 
ions. Universal was the clamor for redress before the 
imperial throne ; but there was nothing to fear from the 
revenge of the injured princes so long as they appealed 
for justice. The general discontent was directed equally 
against the Emperor, who had lent his name to these bar- 
barities, and the general who exceeded his power and 
openly abused the authority of his master. They ap- 
plied to the Emperor for protection against the outrages 
of his generals, but Wallenstein had no sooner felt him- 
self absolute in the army than he threw off his obedience 
to his sovereign. 

The exhaustion of the enemy made a speedy peace 
probable; yet Wallenstein continued to augment the 
imperial armies until they were at least one hundred 



116 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

thousand men strong. Numberless commissions to cola 
nelcies and inferior commands, the regal pomp of the 
commander-in-chief, immoderate largesses to his favor- 
ites (for he never gave less than a thousand florins), 
enormous sums lavished in corrupting the court at 
Vienna — all this had been effected without burdening 
the Emperor. These inmiense sums were raised by the 
contributions levied from the lower German provinces, 
where no distinction was made between friend and foe ; 
and the territories of all i^rinces were subjected to the 
same system of marching and quartering, of extortion 
and outrage. If credit is to be given to an extravagant 
contemporary statement, Wallenstein, during his seven 
years command, had exacted not less than sixty thousand 
millions of dollars from one-half of Germany. The 
greater his extortions the greater the rewards of his 
soldiers, and the greater the concourse to his standard, 
for the world always follows fortune. His armies flour- 
ished while all the states tlirough which they passed 
withered. What cared he for the detestation of the 
people and the complaints of princes? His army adored 
him, and the very enormity of his guilt enabled him to 
bid defiance to its consequences. 

It would be unjust to Ferdinand were we to lay all 
these irregularities to his charge. Had he foreseen that 
he was abandoning the German states to the mercy of 
his officer, he would have been sensible bow dangerous 
to himself so absolute a general would prove. The 
closer the connection became between the army and the 
leader from whom flowed favor and fortune, the more 
the ties which united both to the Emperor were relaxed. 
Everything, it is true, was done in the name of the 
latter ; but Wallenstein only availed himself of the su- 
l^rerae majesty of the Emperor to crush the authority of 
other states. His object was to depress the princes of 
the empire, to destroy all gradation of rank between 
them and the Emperor, and to elevate the power of the 
latter above all competition. If the Emperor was abso- 
lute in Germany who then would be equal to the man 
entrusted with the execution of liis will? The height to 
which Wallenstein had raised the imperial authority 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 117 

astonished even the Emperor himself ; but as the great- 
ness of the master was entirely the work of the servant, 
the creation of Wallenstein would necessarily sink again 
into nothing upon the withdrawal of its creative hand. 
Not without an object, therefore, did Wallenstein labor 
to poison the minds of tlie German princes against the 
Emperor. The more violent their hatred of Ferdinand, 
the more indispensable to the Emperor would become 
the man who alone could render their ill-will powerless. 
His design unquestionably was that his sovereign should 
stand in fear of no one in all Germany besides himself, 
the source and engine of this despotic power. 

As a step towards this end, Wallenstein now demanded 
the cession of Mecklenburgh, to be held in pledge till the 
repayment of his advances for the war. Ferdinand had 
already created him Duke of Friedland, apparently with 
the view of exalting his own general over Bavaria; but 
an ordinary recompense would not satisfy Wallenstein's 
ambition. In vain was this new demand, which could 
be granted only at the expense of two princes of the 
empire, actively resisted in the Imperial Council. In 
vain did the Spaniards, who had long been offended by 
his pride, oppose his elevation. The powerful support 
which Wallenstein had purchased from the imperial 
councillors prevailed, and Ferdinand was determined, at 
whatever cost, to secure the devotion of so indispensable 
a minister. For a slight offence one of the oldest Ger- 
man houses was expelled from their hereditary domin- 
ions, that a creature of the Emperor might be enriched 
by their spoils (1628). 

Wallenstein now began to assume the title of general- 
issimo of the Emperor by sea and land. Wismar was 
taken, and a firm footing gained on the Baltic. Ships 
were required from Poland and the Hans towns to carry 
the war to the other side of the Baltic ; to pursue the 
Danes into the heart of their own country, and to com- 
pel them to a peace which might prepare the way to 
more important conquests. The communication between 
the Lower German States and the Northern powers would 
be broken could the Emperor place himself between 
them, and encompass Germany from the Adriatic to the 



118 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Sound (the intervening kingdom of Poland being already 
dependent on him) with an unbroken line of territory. 
If such was the Emperor's plan, Wallenstein had a pe- 
culiar interest in its execution. These possessions on 
the Baltic should, he intended, form the first foundation 
of a power which had long been the object of his ambi- 
tion, and which should enable him to throw off his de- 
pendence on the Emperor. 

To effect this object it was of extreme importance to 
gain possession of Stralsund, a town on the Baltic. Its 
excellent harbor, and the short passage from it to the 
Swedish and Danish coasts, peculiarly fitted it for a naval 
station in a war with these powers. This town, the 
sixth of the Hanseatic League, enjoyed great privileges 
under the Duke of Pomerania, and, totally independent 
of Denmark, had taken no share in the war. But neither 
its neutrality nor its privileges could protect it against 
the encroachments of Wallenstein when he had once cast 
a longing look upon it. 

The request he made, that Stralsund should receive an 
imjjerial garrison, had been firmly and honorably rejected 
by the magistracy, who also refused his cunningly de- 
manded permission to march his troops through the 
town. Wallenstein therefore now proposed to be- 
siege it. 

The independence of Stralsund, as securing the free 
navigation of the Baltic, was equally important to the 
two Northern kings. A common danger overcame at 
last the private jealousies which had long divided these 
princes. In a treaty concluded at Copenhagen in 1628 
they bound themselves to assist Stralsund with their 
combined force, and to oppose in common every foreign 
power which should appear in the Baltic with hostile 
views. Christian IV. also threw a sufficient garrison 
into Stralsund, and by his personal presence animated 
the courage of the citizens. Some ships-of-war which 
Sigismund, King of Poland, had sent to the assistance of 
the imperial general were sunk by the Danish fleet ; and 
as Lubeck refused him the use of its shipping, this im- 
perial generalissimo of the sea had not even ships enough 
to blockade this sinsrle harbor. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 119 

Nothing could appear raore adventurous than to attempt 
the conquest of a strongly fortified seaport without first 
blockading its harbor. Wallenstein, however, who as yet 
had never experienced a check, wished to conquer nature 
itself, and to perform impossibilities. Stralsund, open to 
the sea, continued to be supplied with provisions and 
reinforcements ; yet Wallenstein maintained his blockade 
on the land side, and endeavored, by boasting menaces, 
to supply his want of real sti-ength. "I will take this 
town," said he, " though it were fastened by a chain to 
the heavens." The Emperor himself, who might have 
cause to regret an enterprise which promised no very 
glorious result, joyfully availed himself of the apparent 
submission and acceptable propositions of the inhabitants, 
to order the general to retire from the town. Wallen- 
stein despised the command, and continued to harass the 
besieged by incessant assaults. As the Danish garrison, 
already much reduced, was unequal to the fatigue of 
this prolonged defence, and the king was unable to 
detach any further troops to their support, Stralsund, 
with Christian's consent, threw itself under the protection 
of the King of Sweden. The Danish commander left the 
town to make way for a Swedish governor, who gloriously 
defended it. Here Wallenstein's good fortune forsook 
him ; and, for the first time, his pride experienced the 
humiliation of relinquishing his prey, after the loss of 
many months and of twelve thousand men. The neces- 
sity to which he reduced the town of applying for 
protection to Sweden laid the foundation of a close 
alliance between Gustavus Adolphus and Stralsund, 
which greatly facilitated the entrance of the Swedes 
into Germany. 

Hitherto invariable success had attended the arms of 
the Emperor and the League, and Christian IV., defeated 
in Germany, had sought refuge in his own island ; but 
the Baltic checked the further progress of the conquerors. 
The want of ships not only stopped the pursuit of the 
king, but endangered their previous acquisitions. The 
union of the two northern monarchs was not to be 
dreaded, because, so long as it lasted, it effectually 
prevented the Emperor and his general from acquiring a 



120 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

footing on the Baltic, or effecting a landing in Sweden. 
But if they could succeed in dissolving this union, and 
especially in securing the friendship of the Danish king, 
they might hoj^e to overpower the insulated force of 
Sweden. The dread of the interference of foreign 
powers, the insubordination of the Protestants in his own 
states, and still more the storm which was gradually 
darkening along the whole of Protestant Germany, 
inclined the Emperor to peace, which his general, from 
opi^osite motives, was equally desirous to effect. Far 
from wishing for a state of things which would reduce 
him from the meridian of greatness and glory to the 
obscurity of private life, he only wished to change 
the theatre of war, and by a partial peace to prolong the 
general confusion. The friendship of Denmark, whose 
neighbor he had become as Duke of Mecklenburgh, was 
most important for the success of his ambitious views ; 
and he resolved, even at the sacrifice of his sovereign's 
interests, to secure its alliance. 

By the treaty of Copenhagen, Christian IV., had ex- 
pressly engaged not to conclude a separate jjeace with 
the Emperor without the consent of Sweden. Notwith- 
standing, Wallen stein's proposition was readily received 
by him. In a conference at Lubeck in 1629, from which 
Wallenstein, with studied contempt, excluded the Swedish 
ambassadors who came to intercede for Mecklenburgh, 
all the conquests taken by the imperialists were restored 
to the Danes. The conditions imposed upon the king 
were, that he should interfere no farther with the affairs 
of Germany than was called for by his cliaracter of Duke 
of Holstein ; that he should on no pretext harass the 
Chapters of Lower Germany, and should leave the Dukes 
of Mecklenbargh to their fate. By Christian himself had 
these princes been involved in the war with the Emperor ; 
he now sacrificed them to gain the favor of the usurper of 
their territories. Among the motives which had engaged 
him in a war with the Emperor, not the least was the 
restoration of his relation, the Elector Palatine — yet 
the name of that unfortunate prince was not even men- 
tioned in the treaty ; Avhile in one of its articles the 
legitimacy of the Bavarian election was expressly recog- 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 121 

nized. Thus meanly and ingloriously did Christian IV. 
retire from the field. 

Ferdinand had it now in his power, for the second 
time, to secure the tranquillity of Germany ; and it 
depended solely on his will whether the treaty with 
Denmark should or should not be the basis of a general 
peace. From every quarter arose the cry of the unfortu- 
nate, petitioning for an end of their sufferings ; the 
cruelties of his soldiers, and the rapacity of his generals, 
had exceeded all bounds. Germany, laid waste by the 
desolating bands of Mansfeld and the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, and by the still more terrible hordes of Tilly and 
Wallenstein, lay exhausted, bleeding, wasted, and sighing 
for repose. An anxious desire for peace was felt by all 
conditions, and by the Emperor himself, involved as he 
M^as in a war with France in Upper Italy, exhausted by 
his past Avarfare in Germany, and apj^rehensive of the 
day of reckoning which was approaching. But, unfortu- 
nately, the conditions on which alone the two religious 
parties were willing respectively to sheath the sword 
were irreconcilable. The Roman Catholics wished to 
terminate the war to their own advantage ; the Prot- 
estants advanced equal pretensions. The Emperor, 
instead of uniting both parties by a prudent moderation, 
sided with one ; and thus Germany was again i^lunged in 
the horrors of a bloody war. 

From the very close of the Bohemian troubles, Ferdi- 
nand had carried on a counter reformation in his heredi- 
tary dominions, in which, however, from regard to some 
of the Protestant Estates, he proceeded, at first, with 
moderation. But the victories of his generals in Lower 
Germany encouraged him to throw off all reserve. Ac- 
cordingly he had it intimated to all the Protestants in 
these dominions that they must either abandon their 
religion or their native country, — a bitter and dreadful 
alternative, which excited the most violent commotions 
among his Austrian subjects. In the Palatinate, immedi- 
ately after the expulsion of Frederick, the Protestant 
rehgion had been suppressed, and its professors expelled 
from the University of Heidelberg. 

All this was but the prelude to greater changes. In 



122 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the Electoral Congress held at Muhlhausen, the Roman 
Catholics had demanded of the Emperor that all the 
archbishoprics, bishoprics, mediate and immediate, ab- 
bacies and monasteries, which, since the Diet of Augsburg, 
had been secularized by the Protestants, should be 
restored to the church, in order to indemnify them for 
the losses and sufferings in the war. To a Roman 
Catholic prince so zealous as Ferdinand was, such a hint 
was not likely to be neglected ; but he still thought it 
would be premature to arouse the whole Protestants of 
Germany by so decisive a step. Not a single Protestant 
prince but would be deprived, by this revocation of the 
religious foundations, of a part of his lands ; for where 
these revenues had not actually been diverted to secular 
purposes they had been made over to the Protestant church. 
To this source many princes owed the chief part of their 
revenues and importance. All, without exception, would 
be irritated by this demand for restoration. The religious 
treaty did not expressly deny their right to these chapters, 
although it did not allow it. But a possession which had 
now been held for nearly a century, the silence of four 
preceding emperors, and the law of equity, which gave 
them an equal right with the Roman Catholics to the 
foundations of their common ancestors, might be strongly 
pleaded by them as a valid title. Besides the actual loss 
of power and authority, which the surrender of these 
foundations would occasion, besides the inevitable confu- 
sion which would necessarily attend it, one important 
disadvantage to which it would lead, was, that the 
restoration of the Roman Catholic bishops would increase 
the strength of that party in the Diet by so many addi- 
tional votes. Such grievous sacrifices likely to fall on 
the Protestants made the Emperor apprehensive of a 
formidable opposition ; and until the military ardor should 
have cooled in Germany, he had no wish to provoke a 
party formidable by its union, and which in the Elector 
of Saxony had a powerful leader. He resolved, therefore, 
to try the experiment at first on a small scale, in order to 
ascertain how it was likely to succeed on a larger one. 
Accordingly, some of the free cities in Upper Germany, 
and the Duke of Wirtemberg, received orders to sur- 



THE THIETY YEARS' WAR. 123 

render to the Roman Catholics several of the confiscated 
chapters. 

The state of affairs in Saxony enabled the Emperor to 
make some bolder experiments in that quarter. In the 
bishoprics of Magxleburg and Halberstadt tlie Protestant 
canons Lad not hesitated to elect bishops of their own 
religion. Both bishoprics, with the exception of the town 
of Magdeburg itself, were overrun by the troops of 
Wallenstein. It haj^pened, moreover, that by the death 
of the Administrator, Duke Christian of Brunswick, Hal- 
berstadt was vacant, as was also the Archbishopric of 
Magdeburg by the deposition of Christian William, a 
prince of the House of Brandenburg. Ferdinand took 
advantage of the circumstance to restore the see of Hal- 
berstadt to a Roman Catholic bishoj?, and a prince of his 
own house. To avoid a similar coercion, the Chapter of 
Magdeburg hastened to elect a son of the Elector of 
Saxony as archbishop. But the pope, who with his arro- 
gated authority interfered in this matter, conferred the 
Archbishopric of Magdeburg also on the Austrian prince. 
Thus, with all his pious zeal for religion, Ferdinand never 
lost sight of the interests of his family. 

At length, when the peace of Lubeck had delivered the 
Emperor from all apprehensions on the side of Denmark, 
and the German Protestants seemed entirely powerless, 
the League becoming louder and more urgent in its 
demands, Ferdinand, in 1629, signed the Edict of Restitu- 
tion (so famous by its disastrous consequences), which 
he had previously laid before the four Roman Catholic 
electors for their approbation. In the preamble, he 
claimed the prerogative, in right of his imperial authority, 
to interpret the meaning of the religious treaty, the am- 
biguities of which had already caused so many disputes, 
and to decide as supreme arbiter and judge between the 
contending parties. This prerogative he founded upon 
the practice of his ancestors, and its previous recognition 
even by Protestant states. Saxony had actually ac- 
knowledged this right of the Emperor ; and it now be- 
came evident how deeply this court had injured the 
Protestant cause by its dependence on the House of Aus- 
tria. But though the meaning of the religious treaty was 



124 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

really ambiguous, as a century of religious disputes suf- 
ficiently proved, yet for the Eraperor, who must be eithei 
a Protestant or a Roman Catholic, and therefore an inter- 
ested party, to assume the right of deciding between the 
disputants, was clearly a violation of an essential article 
of the pacification. He could not be judge in his own 
cause without reducing the liberties of the empire to an 
empty sound. 

And now, in virtue of this usurpation, Ferdinand de- 
cided, " That every secularization of a religious founda- 
tion, mediate or immediate, by the Protestants, subsequent 
to the date of the treaty, Avas contrary to its spirit, and 
must be revoked as a breach of it." He further decided, 
"That, by the religious peace. Catholic proprietors of 
estates were no further bound to their Protestant subjects 
than to allow them full liberty to quit their territories." 
In obedience to this decision, all unlawful possessors of 
benefices — the Protestant states in short without excep- 
tion — were ordered, under pain of the ban of the empire, 
immediately to surrender their usurped possessions to 
the imperial commissioners. 

This sentence applied to no less than two archbishoprics 
and twelve bishoprics, besides innumerable abbacies. 
The edict came like a thunderbolt on the whole of Prot- 
estant Germany; dreadful even in its immediate conse- 
quences ; but yet more so from the further calamities it 
seemed to threaten. The Protestants were now convinced 
that the suppression of their religion had been resolved 
on by the Emperor and the League, and that the over- 
throw of German liberty would soon follow. Their re- 
monstrances were unheeded; the commissioners were 
named, and an army assembled to enforce obedience. 
The edict was first put in force in Augsburg, where the 
treaty was concluded ; the city was again placed under 
the government of its bishop, and six Protestant churches 
in the town were closed. The Duke of Wirtemberg was, 
in like manner, compelled to surrender his abbacies. 
These severe measures, though they alarmed the Protest- 
ant states, were yet insufficient to rouse them to an active 
resistance. Their fear of the Emperer was too strong, 
and many were disposed to quiet submission. The hope 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 125 

of attaining their end by gentle measures induced the 
Roman Catholics likewise to delay for a year the execu- 
tion of the edict, and this saved the Protestants ; before 
the end of that period the success of Swedish arms had 
totally changed the state of affairs. 

In a Diet held at Ratisbon, at which Ferdinand was 
present in person (in 1630), the necessity of taking some 
measures for the immediate restoration of a general peace 
to Germany, and for the removal of all grievances, was 
debated. The complaints of the Roman Catholics were 
scarcely less numerous than those of the Protestants, 
altliougli Ferdinand had flattered himself that by the 
Edict of Restitution he had secured the members of the 
League, and its leader by the gift of the electoral dignity, 
and the cession of great part of the Palatinate. But the 
good understanding between the Emperor and the princes 
of the League had rapidly declined since the employment 
of Wallenstein. Accustomed to give law to Germany, 
and even to sway the Emperor's own destiny, the haughty 
Elector of Bavaria now at once saw himself supplanted 
by the imperial general, and with that of the League, his 
own importance completely undermined. Another had 
now stepped in to reap the fruits of his victories, and to 
bury his past services in oblivion. Wallenstein's impe- 
rious character, whose dearest triumph was in degrading 
the authority of the princes, and giving an odious latitude 
to that of the Emperor, tended not a little to augment 
the irritation of tlie Elector. Discontented with the 
Emperor, and distrustful of his intentions, he had entered 
into an alliance with France, which the "other members of 
the League were suspected of favoring. A fear of the 
Emperor's plans of aggrandizement, and discontent witli 
existmg evils, had extinguished among them all feelings of 
gratitude. Wallenstein's exactions had become altogether 
intolerable. Brandenburg estimated its losses at twenty, 
Pomerania at ten, Hesse Cassel at seven millions of dol- 
lars, and the rest in proportion. The cry of redress was 
loud, urgent, and universal ; all prejudices were hushed ; 
Roman Catholics and Protestants were alike on this 
point. The terrified Emperor was assailed on all sides 
by petitions against Wallenstein, and his ear filled with 



126 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the most fearful descriptions of his outrages. Ferdinand 
was not naturally cruel. If not totally innocent of th.e 
atrocities which were practised in Germany under the 
shelter of his name, he was ignorant of their extent ; and 
he was not long in yielding to the representation of the 
princes, and reduced his standing array by eighteen 
thousand cavalry. While this reduction took j^lace, the 
Swedes were actively preparing an expedition into Ger- 
many, and the greater part of the disbanded Imperialists 
enlisted under their banners. 

The Emperor's concessions only encouraged the Elector 
of Bavaria to bolder demands. So long as tlie Duke of 
Friedland retained the supreme command his triumph 
over the Emperor was incomjolete. The pi-inces of the 
League were meditating a severe revenge on Wallenstein 
for that haughtiness with which he had treated them all 
alike. His dismissal was demanded by the whole college 
of electors, and even by Spain, with a degree of unanim- 
ity and urgency Avhich astonished the Emperor. The 
anxiety Avith which Wallenstein's enemies pressed for his 
dismissal ought to have convinced the Emperor of the 
importance of his services. Wallenstein, informed of the 
cabals which were forming against him in Ratisbon, lost 
no time in opening the eyes of the Emperor to the real 
views of the Elector of Bavaria. He himself appeared in 
Ratisbon, with a pomp which threw his master into the 
shade, and increased the hatred of his opponents. 

Long was the Emperor undecided. The sacrifice de 
manded was a painful one. To the Duke of Friedland 
alone he owed his preponderance ; he felt how much he 
would lose in yielding him to the indignation of the 
princes. But at this moment, unfortunately, he was un- 
der the necessity of conciliating the Electors. His son 
Ferdinand had already been chosen King of Hungary, 
and he Avas endeavoring to j^rocure his election as his 
successor in tlie empire. For this purpose the support 
of Maximilian was indispensable. This consideration was 
the weightiest, and to oblige the Elector of Bavaria he 
scrupled not to sacrifice his most valuable servant. 

At the Diet at Ratisbon there Avere present ambassa- 
dors from France, empowered to adjust the differences 



THE THIRTY YEAES WAR. 

which seemed to menace a war in Italy between the Em- 
peror and their sovereign. Vincent, Duke of Mantua 
and Montferrat, dying without issue, his next relation, 
Charles Duke of Nevers, had taken possession of this 
inheritance, without doing homage to the Emperior as 
liege lord of the principality. Encouraged by the support 
of France and Venice, he refused to surrender these 
territories into the hands of the imperial commissioners, 
until his title to them should be decided. On the other 
hand, Ferdinand had taken up arms at the instigation of 
the Spaniards, to whom, as possessors of Milan, the near 
neighborhood of a vassal of France was peculiarly alarm- 
ing, and who welcomed this prospect of making, with the 
assistance of the Emperor, additional conquests in Italy. 
In spite of all the exertions of Pope Urban VIII. to avert 
a war in that country, Ferdinand marched a German 
army across the Alps, and threw the Italian states into a 
general consternation. His arms had been successful 
throughout Germany, and exaggerated fears revived the 
olden apprehension of Austria's projects of universal 
monarchy. All the horrors of the German war now 
spread like a deluge over those favored countries Mdiich 
the Po waters ; Mantua was taken by storm, and the sur- 
rounding districts given up to the ravages of a lawless 
soldiery. The curse of Italy was thus added to the male- 
dictions upon the Emperor which resounded through Ger- 
many ; and even in the Roman Conclave, silent prayers 
were offered for the success of the Pi-otestant arras. 

Alarmed by the universal hatred which this Italian 
campaign had drawn upon him, and wearied out by the 
urgent remonstrances of the Electors, who zealously sup- 
ported the application of the French ambassador, the 
Emperor promised the investiture to the new Duke of 
Mantua. 

This important service on the part of Bavaria of course 
required an equivalent from France. The adjustment of 
the treaty gave the envoys of Richelieu, during their 
residence in Ratisbon, the desired opportunity of entang 
ling the Emperor in dangerous intrigues, of inflaming the 
discontented princes of the League still more strongly 
against hira, and of turning to his disadvantage all the 



128 THE THIKTY YEARS' WAR. 

transactions of the Diet. For tliis purpose Richelieu had 
chosen an admirable instrument in Father Josepli, a 
Capuchin friar, who accompanied the ambassadors with- 
out exciting the least suspicion. One of his principal 
instructions was assiduously to bring about the dismissal 
of Wallenstein. With the general who had led it to vic- 
tory the army of Austria would lose its principal strength; 
many armies could not compensate for the loss of this in- 
dividual. It would therefore be a master-stroke of policy, 
at the very moment when a victorious monarch, the ah- 
solute master of his operations, was arming against the 
E nperor, to remove from the head of the imperial armies 
the only general who, by ability and military experience, 
was able to cope with the French king. Father Joseph, in 
the interests of Bavaria, undertook to overcome the irreso- 
lution of the Emperor, who was now in a manner besieged 
by the Spaniards and the Electoral Council. " It would 
be expedient," he thought, " to gratify the Electors on 
this occasion, and thereby facilitate his son's election to 
the Roman Crown. This object once gained Wallen- 
stein could at any time resume his former station." The 
artful Capuchin was too sure of his man to touch upon 
this ground of consolation. 

The voice of a monk was to Ferdinand II. the voice of 
God. "Nothing on earth," writes his own confessor, 
" was more sacred in his eyes than a priest. If it could 
happen, he used to say, that an angel and a Regular were 
to meet hmi at the same time and place, the Regular 
should receive his first, and the angel his second obei- 
sance." Wallenstein's dismissal was determined upon. 

In return for this pious concession, the Capuchin dex- 
terously counteracted the Emperor's scheme to procure 
for the King of Hungary the further dignity of King of 
the Romans. In an express clause of the treaty just con- 
cluded, the French ministers engaged in the name of 
their sovereign to observe a complete neutrality between 
the Emperor and his enemies ; while at the same time, 
Richelieu was actually negotiating Avith the King of 
Sweden to declare war, and pressing upon him the alli- 
ance of his master. The latter, indeed, disavowed the 
lie as soon as it had served its purpose, and Father Joseph, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 129 

confined to a convent, must atone for the alleged offence 
of exceeding his instructions. Ferdinand perceived, when 
too late, that he had been imjDosed upon. " A wicked 
Capuchin," he was heard to say, " has disarmed me with 
liis rosary, and thrust nothing less than six electoral 
crowns into his cowl." 

Artifice and trickery thus triumphed over the Emperor 
at the moment when he was believed to be omnipotent 
in Germany, and actually was so in the field. With the 
loss of eighteen thousand men, and of a general who alone 
was worth whole armies, he left Ratisbon without gain- 
ing the end for which he had made such sacrifices. Be- 
fore the Swedes had vanquished him in the field, Maxi- 
milian of Bavaria and Father Joseph had given him a 
mortal blow. At this memorable Diet at Ratisbon the 
war with Sweden was resolved upon, and that of Mantua 
terminated. Vainly had the princes present at it inter- 
ceded for the Dukes of Mecklenburgh ; and equally fruit- 
less had been an application by the English ambassadors 
for a pension to the Palatine Frederick. 

Wallenstein was at the head of an array of nearly 
a hundred thousand men who adored him when the 
sentence of his dismissal arrived. Most of the officers 
were his creatures : — with the common soldiers his hint 
was law. His ambition was boundless, his pride indomi- 
table, his imperious spirit could not brook an injury 
unavenged. One moment would now precipitate him 
from the height of grandeur into the obscurity of a private 
station. To execute such a sentence upon such a delin- 
quent seemed to require more address than it cost to 
obtain it from the judge. Accordingly, two of Wal- 
lenstein's most intimate friends were selected as heralds 
of these evil tidings, and instructed to soften them as 
much as possible by flattering assurances of the continu- 
ance of the Emperor's favor. 

Wallenstein had ascertained the purport of their 
message before the imperial ambassadors arrived. He 
had time to collect himself, and his countenance exhibited 
an external calmness, while grief and rage were storming 
in his bosom. He had made up his mind to obey. The 
Emperor's decision had taken him by surprise before 



130 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

circumstances were ripe, or his j)reparations complete, foi* 
the bold measures he had contemplated. His extensive 
estates were scattered over Bohemia and Moravia ; and 
by their confiscation the Emperor might at once destroy 
the sinews of his power. He looked, therefore, to the 
future for revenge ; and in this hope he was encouraged 
by the predictions of an Italian astrologer, who led 
his imperious spirit like a child in leading-strings. Seni 
had read in the stars that his master's brilliant career 
was not yet ended ; and that bright and glorious pros- 
pects still awaited him. It was, indeed, unnecessary to 
consult the stars to foretell that an enemy, Gustavus 
Adolphus, would ere long render indispensable the services 
of such a general as Wallenstein. 

" The Emperor is betrayed," said Wallenstein to the 
messengers ; " I pity but forgive him. It is plain that 
the grasping spirit of the Bavarian dictates to him. I 
grieve that, with so much weakness, he has sacrificed me, 
but I will obey." He dismissed the emissaries with 
princely presents ; and in an humble letter besought the 
continuance of the Emperor's favor, and of the dignities 
he had bestowed upon him. 

The murmurs of the army were universal on hearing 
of the dismissal of their general ; and the greatei part of 
his officers immediately quitted the imperial service. 
Many followed him to his estates in Bohemia and Moravia ; 
others he attached to his interests by pensions, in order 
to command their services when the opportunity should 
offer. 

But repose was the last thing that Wallenstein contem- 
plated when he returned to private life. In his retreat 
he surrounded himself with a regal pomp which seemed 
to mock the sentence of degradation. Six gates led to 
the palace he inhabited in Prague, and a hiindred houses 
were pulled down to make way for his courtyard. Sim- 
ilar palaces were built on his other numerous estates. 
Gentlemen of the noblest houses contended for the 
honor of serving him, and even imperial chamberlains 
resigned the golden key to the Emperor to fill a similar 
office under Wallenstein. He maintained sixty pages, 
who were instructed by the ablest masters. His ante- 



The thirty years' war. 131 

chamber was protected by fifty life-guards. His table 
never consisted of less than one hundred covers, and his 
seneschal was a person of distinction. When he travelled, 
his baggage and suite accompanied him in a hundred 
wagons, drawn by six or four horses ; his court followed 
in sixty carriages, attended by fifty led horses. The 
pomp of his liveries, the splendor of his equipages, and 
the decorations of his apartments, were in keeping with 
all the rest. Six barons and as many knights were in 
constant attendance about his person, and ready to 
execute his slightest order. Twelve patrols went their 
rounds about his palace to prevent any disturbance. 
His busy genius required silence. The noise of coaches 
was to be kept away from his residence, and the streets 
leading to it were frequently blocked up with chains. 
His own circle was as silent as the approaches to his 
palace ; dark, reserved and impenetrable, he was more 
sparing of his words than of his gifts ; while the little 
that he spoke was harsh and imperious. He never 
smiled, and the coldness of his temperament was proof 
against sensual seductions. Ever occupied with grand 
schemes, he despised all those idle amusements in which 
so many waste their lives. The correspondence he kept 
up with the whole of Europe was chiefly managed by 
himself, and, that as little as possible might be trusted to 
the silence of others, most of the letters were written by 
his own hand. He was a man of large stature, thin, of a 
sallow complexion, with short red hair, and small spark- 
ling eyes. A gloomy and forbidding seriousness sat 
upon his brow ; and his magnificent presents alone 
retained the trembling crowd of his dependents. 

In this stately obscurity did Wallenstein silently but 
not inactively await the hour of revenge. The victorious 
career of Gustavus Adolphus soon gave him a presenti- 
ment of its approach. Not one of his lofty schemes had 
been abandoned ; and the Emperor's ingratitude had 
loosened the curb of his ambition. The dazzling splendor 
of his private life bespoke high-soaring projects; and, 
lavish as a king, he seemed already to reckon among 
his certain possessions those which he contemplated 
with hope. 



132 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

After Wallenstein's dismissal, and the invasion oi 
Gustavus Adolplms, a new generalissimo was to be 
appointed ; and it now appeared advisable to unite both 
the imperial army and that of the League under one 
general. Maximilian of Bavaria sought this appointment, 
which would have enabled him to dictate to the Emperor, 
who, from a conviction of this, wished to procure the 
command for his eldest son, the King of Hungary. At 
last, in order to avoid offence to either of the competi- 
tors, the appointment was given to Tilly, who now 
exchanged the Bavarian for the Austrian service. The 
imperial army in Germany, after the retirement of Wal- 
lenstein, amounted to about forty thousand men ; that of 
the League to nearly the same number, both commanded 
by excellent officers, trained by the experience of several 
campaigns, and proud of a long series of victories. With 
such a force little apj^rehension was felt at the invasion 
of the King of Sweden, and the less so as it commanded 
both Pomerania and Mecklenburgh, the only countries 
through which he could enter Germany. 

After the unsuccessful attemjDt of the King of Denmark 
to check the Emperor's progress, Gustavus Adolphus was 
the only prince in Europe from whom oppressed liberty 
could look for j^i'otection — the only one who, while he 
was personally qualified to conduct such an enterprise, 
had both political motives to recommend and wrongs to 
justify it. Before the commencement of the war in 
Lower Saxony, important political interests induced him, 
as well as the King of Denmark, to offer liis services and 
his army for the defence of Germany; but the offer of 
the latter had, to his own misfortune, been preferred. 
Since that time Wallenstein and the Emperor had 
adopted measures which must have been equally offensive 
to him as a man and as a king. Imperial troops had 
been despatched to the aid of the Polish king, Sigismund, 
to defend Prussia against the Swedes. When the king 
complained to Wallenstein for this act of hostility, he 
received for answer, " The Emperor has more soldiers 
than he wants for himself, he must help his friends." 
The Swedish ambassadors had been insolently ordered 
by Wallenstein to withdraw from the conference at 



THE TfilHTY YEAKS' WAR. l3o 

Lubeck ; and when, unawed by this command, they were 
courageous enough to remain, contrary to the law of 
nations, he had threatened them with violence. Fer- 
dinand had also insulted the Swedish flag, and intercepted 
the king's despatches to Transylvania. He also threw 
every obstacle in the way of a peace betwixt Poland and 
Sweden, supjDorted the pretensions of Sigismund to the 
Swedish throne, and denied the right of Gustavus to the 
title of king. Deigning no regard to the repeated remon- 
strances of Gustavus, he rather aggravated the offence 
by new grievances than acceded the required satis- 
faction. 

So many personal motives, supported by important 
considerations, both of policy and religion, and seconded 
by pressing invitations from Germany, had their full 
weight with a prince, who was naturally the more jealous 
of his royal prerogative the more it was questioned ; who 
was flattered by the glory he hoped to gain as Protector 
of the Oppressed, and passionately loved war as the 
element of his genius. But until a truce or peace with 
Poland should set his hands free, a new and dangerous 
war was not to be thought of. 

Cardinal Richelieu had the merit of effecting this truce 
with Poland. This great statesman, who guided the 
helm of Europe, while in France he repressed the rage 
of faction and the insolence of the nobles, pursued 
steadily, amidst the cares of a stormy administration, his 
plan of lowering the ascendancy of the House of Austria. 
But circumstances opposed considerable obstacles to the 
execution of his designs ; and even the greatest minds 
cannot, with impunity, defy the prejudices of the age. 
The minister of a Roman Catholic king, and a Cardinal, 
he was prevented by the purple he bore from joining the 
enemies of that church in an open attack on a power 
which had the address to sanctify its ambitious encroach- 
ments under the name of religion. The external defer- 
ence which Richelieu was obliged to pay to the narrow 
views of his contemporaries limited his exertions to secret 
negotiations, by which he endeavored to gain the hand 
of others to accomplish the enlightened projects of his own 
mind. After a fruitless attempt to prevent the peace 



134 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

between Denmark and the Emperor, he had recourse to 

GustavLis Adolphus, the hero of his age. No exertion 
was spared to bring this monarch to a favorable decision, 
and at the same time to facilitate the execution of it. 
Charnasse, an unsuspected agent of the Cardinal, pro- 
ceeded to Polish Prussia, where Gustavus Adolphus was 
conducting the war against Sigismund, and alternately 
visited these princes, in order to persuade them to a 
truce or peace. Gustavus had been long inclined to it, 
and the French minister succeeded at last in opening the 
eyes of Sigismund to his true interests, and to the de- 
ceitful policy of the Emperor. A truce for six years was 
agreed on, Gustavus being allowed to retain all his con- 
quests. This treaty gave him also what he had so long 
desired, the liberty of directing his arms against the 
Emperor. For this the French ambassador offered him 
the alliance of his sovereign and considerable subsidies. 
But Gustavus Adolphus was justly apprehensive lest the 
acceptance of the assistance should make him dependent 
upon France, and fetter him in his career of conquests, 
while an alliance with a Roman Catholic power might 
excite distrust among the Protestants. 

If the war was just and necessary, the circumstances 
under which it was undertaken were not less promising. 
The name of the Emperor, it is true, was formidable, his 
resources inexhaustible, his power hitherto invincible. 
So dangerous a contest would have dismayed any other 
than Gustavus. He saw all the obstacles and dangers 
which opposed his undertaking, but he knew also the 
means by which, as he hoped, they might be conquered. 
His army, though not numerous, was Avell disciplined, 
inured to hardship by a severe climate and campaigns, 
and trained to victory in the war with Poland. Sweden, 
though poor in men and money, and overtaxed by an 
eight years' war, was devoted to its monarch with an 
enthusiasm which assured him of the ready support of 
his subjects. In Germany the name of the Emperor 
was at least as much hated as feared. The Protestant 
princes only awaited the arrival of a deliverer to thi'ow 
off his intolerable yoke, and openly declare for the 
Swedes. Even the Roman Catholic states would welcome 



The thirty years' war. 1S5 

an antagonist to the Emperor, wliose opposition might 
control his overwhelming influence. The first victory 
gained on German ground would be decisive. It would 
encourage those princes who still hesitated to declare 
themselves, strengthen the cause of his adherents, aug- 
ment his troops, and open resources for the maintenance 
of the campaign. If the greater part of the German 
states were improverished by oppression the flourishing 
Hanse towns had escaj^ed, and they could not hesitate, 
by a small voluntary sacrifice, to avert the general ruin. 
As the imperialists should be driven from the different 
provinces, their armies would diminish, since they were 
subsisting on the countries in which they were encamped. 
The strength, too, of the Emperor had been lessened by 
ill-timed detachments to Italy and the Netherlands ; 
while Spain weakened, by the loss of the Manila galleons, 
and engaged in a serious war in tlie Netherlands, could 
afford him little support. Great Britian, on the other 
hand, gave the -King of Sweden hope of considerable 
subsidies; and France, now at j^eace with itself, came 
forward with the most favorable offers. 

But the strongest pledge for the success of his under- 
taking Gustavus found — in himself. Prudence de- 
manded that he should embrace all the foreign assistance 
he could in order to guard his enterprise from the impu- 
tation of rashness ; but all his confidence and courage were 
entirely derived from himself. He was indisputably the 
greatest general of his age, and the bravest soldier in the 
army which he had formed. Familiar with the tactics 
of Greece and Rome, he had discovered a more effective 
system of warfare, which was adopted as a model by the 
most eminent commanders of subsequent times. He 
reduced the unwieldy squadrons of cavalry, and rendered 
their movements more light and rapid ; and, with the 
same view, he widened the intervals between his bat- 
talions. Instead of the ^^sual array in a single line, 
he disposed his forces in two lines, that the second might 
advance in the event of the first giving Avay. 

He made up for his want of cavalry by placing infantry 
among the horse ; a 2:)ractice which frequently decided 
the victory. Europe first learned from him the impor- 



136 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

tance of infantry. All Germany was astonished at the 
strict discipline which, at the first, so creditably distin- 
guished the Swedish army within their territories ; all 
disorders were punished with the utmost severity, jDartic- 
ularly imjDiet)^, theft, gambling, and duelling. The 
Swedish articles of war enforced frugality. In the camp, 
the King's tent not excepted, neither silver nor gold was 
to be seen. The general's eye looked as vigilantly to the 
morals as to the martial bravery of his soldiers ; every 
regiment was ordered to foi'm round its chaplain for 
morning and evening prayers. In all these points the 
lawgiver was also an example. A sincere and ardent 
piety exalted his courage. Equally free from the coarse 
infidelity which leaves the passions of the barbarian with- 
out a control, — and from the grovelling superstition of 
Ferdinand, who humbled himself to the dust before the 
Supreme Being, while he haughtily trampled on his 
fellow-creature — in the heiglit of his success he was ever 
a man and a Christian — in the height of his devotion, a 
king and hero. The hardships of war he shared with the 
meanest soldier in his army; maintained a calm serenity 
amidst the hottest fury of battle; his glance was omni- 
present, and he intrepidly forgot the dange?" while he 
exposed himself to the greatest peril. His natural 
courage, indeed, too often made him forget the duty of a 
general ; and the life of a king ended in the death of a 
common soldier. But such a leader was followed to 
victory alike by the coward and the brave, and his eagle 
glance marked every heroic deed which his example had 
inspired. The fame of their sovereign excited in the 
nation an enthusiastic sense of their own importance ; 
proud of their king, the peasant in Finland and Gothland 
joyfully contributed his pittance ; the soldier willingly 
shed his blood ; and the lofty energy which his single 
mind had imparted to the nation long survived its 
creator. 

The necessity of the war was acknowledged, but the 
best plan of conducting it was a matter of much ques- 
tion. Even to the bold Chancellor Oxenstiern, an offen- 
sive war appeared too daring a measure; the resources of 
his poor and conscientious master appeared to him too 



THE THIRTY YEARS ' WAR. 13 'J 

slender to compete with those of a despotic sovereign 
who held all Germany at his command. But the minis- 
ister's timid scruples were overruled by the hero's pene- 
trating prudence. "If we await the enemy in Sweden," 
said Gustavus, " in tlie event of a defeat everything 
would be lost; by a fortunate commencement in Ger- 
many everything would be gained. The sea is wide, and 
we have a long line of coast in Sweden to defend. If 
the enemy's fleet should escape us, or our own be de- 
feated, it would, in either case, be impossible to prevent 
the enemy's landing. Everything depends on the reten- 
tion of Stralsund. So long as this harbor is open to us 
we shall both command the Baltic and secure a retreat 
from Germany. But to protect this port we must not 
remain in Sweden, but advance at once into Pomerania. 
Let us talk no more, then, of a defensive war, by which 
we should sacrifice our greatest advantages. Sweden 
must not be doomed to behold a hostile banner ; if we 
are vanquished in Germany, it will be time enough to 
follow your plan." 

Gustavus resolved to cross the Baltic and attack the 
Empei'or. His preparations were made with the utmost 
expedition, and his precautionai'y measures were not less 
prudent than the resolution itself was bold and magnani- 
mous. Before engaging in so distant a v/ar it was neces- 
sary to secure Sweden against its neighbors. At a per- 
sonal interview with the King of Denmark at Markaroed 
Gustavus assured himself of the friendship of that mon- 
arch ; his frontier on the side of Moscow was well guarded; 
Poland might be held in check from Germany, if it 
betrayed any design of infringing the truce. Falken- 
berg, a Swedish ambassador, who visited the courts of 
Holland and Germany, obtained the most flattering 
promises from several Protestant princes, though none of 
them yet possessed courage or self-devotion enough to 
enter into a formal alliance with him. Lubeck and 
Hamburg engaged to advance him money, and to accept 
Swedish copper in i*eturn. Emissaries were also de- 
spatched to the Prince of Transylvania to excite that 
implacable enemy of Austria to arms. 

In the meantime Swedish levies were made in Ger- 



138 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

many and the Netherlands, the regiments increased to 
their full comjDlement, new ones raised, transports pro- 
vided, a fleet fitted out, provisions, military stores, and 
money collected. Thirty ships-of-war were in a short 
time prepared, fifteen thousand men equipped, and two 
hundred transports were ready to convey them across 
the Baltic. A greater force Gustavus Adolphus was 
unwilling to carry into Germany, and even the mainte- 
nance of this exceeded the revenues of his kingdom. But 
liowever small his army, it was admirable in all points of 
discipline, courage, and experience, and might serve as 
the nucleus of a more powerful armament if it once 
gained the German frontier and its first attempts were 
attended with success. Oxenstiern, at once general and 
chancellor, was posted with ten thousand men in Prussia 
to protect that province against Poland. Some regular 
troops, and a considerable body of militia, which served 
as a nursery for the main body, remained in Sweden as a 
defence against a sudden invasion by any treacherous 
neighbor. 

These were the measures taken for the external de- 
fence of the kingdom. Its internal administration was 
provided for with equal care. The government was 
entrusted to the Council of State, and the finances to the 
Palatine John Casimir, the brother-in-law of the King, 
while his Avife, tenderly as he was attached to her, was 
excluded from all share in the government, for which her 
limited talents incapacitated her. He set his house in 
order like a dying man. On the 20th May, 1630, when 
all his measures were arranged, and all was ready for his 
departure, the King ajDj^eared in the Diet at Stockholm 
to bid the States a solemn farewell. Taking in his arms 
his daughter Christina, then only four years old, who, in 
the cradle had been acknowledged as his successor, he 
presented her to the States as the future sovereign, 
exacted from them a renewal of the oath of allegiance 
to her, in case he should never more return, and then 
read the ordinances for the government of the kingdom 
during his absence or the minority of his daughter. 
The whole assembly was dissolved in tears, and the 
King himself was some time before he could attain 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 139 

sufficient composure to deliver his farewell address to 
the States. 

" Not lightly or wantonly," said he, " am I about to 
involve myself and you in this new and dangerous war ; 
God is my witness that I do not fight to gratify my own 
ambition. But the Emperor has wronged me most 
shamefully in the person of my ambassadors. He has 
supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and breth- 
ren, trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretched 
his revengeful arm against my crown. The opjsressed 
states of Germany call loudly for aid, which, by God's 
help, we will give them. 

" I am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life 
will be exposed. I have never yet shrunk from them, 
nor is it likely that I shall escape them all. Hitherto, 
Providence has wonderfully protected me, but I shall at 
last fall in defence of my country, I commend you to 
the protection of Heaven. Be just, be conscientious, act 
uprightly, and we shall meet again in eternity. 

"To you, my Councillors of State, I address myself 
first. May God enlighten you and fill you with wisdom 
to promote the welfare of my people. You, too, my brave 
nobles, I commend to the divine protection. Continue 
to prove yourselves the worthy successors of those Gothic 
heroes whose bravery humbled to the dust the pride of 
ancient Rome. To you, ministers of religion, I recom- 
mend moderation and unity ; be yourselves examples of 
the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your influ- 
ence over the minds of my people. On you, deputies of 
the burgesses, and the peasantry, I entreat the blessing 
of heaven; may your industry be rewarded by a prosper- 
ous harvest ; your stores plenteously filled, and may you 
be ci-owned abundantly with all the blessings of this life. 
For the prosperity of all my subjects, absent and pres- 
ent, I offer my Avarmest prayers to Heaven. I bid you 
all a sincere, it may be, an eternal farewell." 

The embai'kation of the troops took place at Elfskna- 
ben, where the fleet lay at anchor. An immense con- 
course flocked thither to witness this magnificent specta- 
cle. The hearts of the spectators were agitated by 
varied emotions as they alternately considered the vast- 



140 THE THIKTY YEARS' WAR. 

ness of the enterprise and the greatness of the leader. 
Among the superior officers who commanded in this 
army were Gustavus Horn, the Rhinegrave Otto Lewis, 
Henry Matthias, Count Thurn, Ottenburg, Baudissen, 
Banner, Teufel, Tott, Mutsenfahl, Falkenberg, Kniphau- 
sen, and other distinguished names. Detained by con- 
trary winds, the fleet did not sail till June, and on the 
24th of that month reached the island of Rugen, in 
Pomerania. 

Gustavus Adolphus was the first who landed. In the 
presence of his suite he knelt on the shore of Germany 
to return thanks to the Almighty for the safe arrival of 
his fleet and his army. He landed his troops on the 
Islands of Wollin and Usedom ; upon his approach the 
imperial garrisons abandoned their intrenchments and fled. 
He advanced rapidly on Stettin, to secure this important 
place before the appearance of the Imperialists. Bogis- 
laus Xiy., Duke of Pomerania, a feeble and superannu- 
ated prince, had been long tired out by tlie outrages 
committed by the latter within his territories; but too 
weak to resist he had contented himself with murmurs. 
The appearance of his deliverer, instead of animating his 
courage, increased his fear and anxiety. Severely as his 
country had suffered from the Imperialists, the risk of 
incurring the Emperoi''s vengeance prevented him from 
declaring openly for the Swedes. Gustavus Adolphus, 
who was encamped under the walls of the town, sum- 
moned the city to receive a Swedish garrison. Bogislaus 
appeared in person in the 'camp of Gustavus to deprecate 
this condition. " I come to you," said Gustavus, " not as an 
enemy but a friend. I wage no war against Pomerania, 
nor against the German empire, but against the enemies 
of both. In my hands this duchy sliall be sacred ; and it 
shall be restored to you at tlie conclusion of the campaign, 
by me, with moi'e certainty than by any other. Look to 
the traces of the imperial force within your territories, 
and to mine in Usedom ; and decide whether you will 
have the Emperor or me as your friend. What have you 
to expect if the Emperor should make himself master <>i 
your capital? Will he deal with you more leniently than 
I? Or is it your intention to stop my progress? The 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 141 

case is pressing ; decide at once, and do not compel me to 
have recourse to more violent measures." 

The alternative was a painful one. On the one side, 
the King of Sweden was before his gates with a formid- 
able army ; on the other, he saw the inevitable ven- 
geance of the Emperor, and the fearful example of so 
many German princes who were now wandering in misery, 
the victims of that revenge. The more immediate danger 
decided his resolution. The gates of Stettin were opened 
to the king ; the Swedish troops entered ; and the Aus- 
trians, who were advancing by rapid marches, anticipated. 
The capture of this place procured for the king a fii-m 
footing in Pomerania, the command of the Odei-, and a 
magazine for his troops. To prevent a charge of treach- 
ery, Bogislaus was careful to excuse this step to the 
Emperor on the plea of necessity ; but aware of Ferdi- 
nand's implacable disposition, he entered into a close 
alliance with his new protector. By this league with 
Pomerania, Gustavus secured a powerful friend in Ger- 
many, who covered his rear, and maintained his com- 
munication with Sweden. 

As Ferdinand was already the aggressor in Prussia, 
Gustavus Adolphus thought himself absolved from the 
usual formalties, and commenced hostilities without any 
declaration of war. To the other European powers he 
justified his conduct in a manifesto, in which he detailed 
the grounds which had led him to take up arms. Mean- 
while he continued his progress in Pomerania, while he 
saw his army daily increasing. The troops which had 
fought under Mansfeld, Duke Christian of Brunswick, 
the King of Denmark, and Wallenstein came in crowds, 
both officers and soldiers, to join his victorious standard. 

At the Imperial court the invasion of the King of 
Sweden at first excited far less attention than it merited o 
The i^ride of Austria, extravagantly elated by its unheard- 
of successes, looked down with contempt upon a prince, 
who, with a handful of men, came from an obscure corner 
of Europe, and who owed his past successes, as they im- 
agined, entirely to the incapacity of a weak opponent. 
The depreciatory reiDresentation which Wallenstein had 
artfully given of the Swedish power increased the Em- 



142 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

peror's security ; for what had he to fear from an enemy 
whom his general undertook to drive with such ease 
from Germany? Even the rajDid progress of Gustavus 
Adolphus in Pomerania could not entirely dispel this 
prejudice, which the mockeries of the courtiers continued 
to feed. He was called in Vienna the Snow King, whom 
the cold of the north kept together, but who would 
infallibly melt as he advanced southward. Even the 
electors, assembled in Ratisbon, disregarded his repre- 
sentations ; and, influenced by an abject complaisance to 
Ferdinand, refused him even the title of king. But while 
they mocked him in Ratisbon and Vienna, in Mecklen- 
burgh and Pomerania one strong town after another fell 
into his hands. 

Notwithstanding this contempt the Emperor thought 
it i3roper to offer to adjust his differences with Sweden 
by negotiation, and for that jourpose sent plenipotentiaries 
to Denmark. But their instructions showed how little 
he was in earnest in these proposals, for he still continued 
to refuse to Gustavus the title of king. He hoped by 
this means to throw on the King of Sweden the odium of 
being the aggressor, and thereby to insure the support of 
the States of the empire. The conference at Dantzic 
proved, as might be expected, fruitless, and the animosity 
of both parties was increased to its utmost by an intem- 
perate correspondence. 

An imperial general, Torquato Conti, who commanded 
in Pomerania, had, in the meantime, made a vain attempt 
to wrest Stettin from the Swedes. The Imperialists were 
driven out from one place after another ; Damm, Star- 
gard, Camin, and Wolgast, soon fell in the hands of Gus- 
tavus, To revenge himself upon the Duke of Pomerania, 
the imperial general permitted his troops, upon his re- 
treat, to exercise every barbarity on the unfortunate in- 
habitants of Pomerania, who had already suffered but too 
severely from his avarice. On pretence of cutting off the 
resources of the Swedes, the whole country was laid 
waste and plundered ; and often, when the Imperialists 
were unable any longer to maintain a place, it was laid in 
ashes, in order to leave the enemy nothing but ruins. 
But these barbarities only served to place in a more far 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 143 

vorable light the opposite conduct of the Swedes, and to 
win all hearts to their humane monarch. The Swedish 
soldier paid for all he required ; no private property was 
injured on his march. The Swedes consequently were 
received with open arms both in town and country, whilst 
every Imi3erialist that fell into the hands of the Pomeran- 
ian peasantry was ruthlessly murdered. Many Pomeran- 
ians entered into the service of Sweden, and the estates 
of this exhausted country willingly voted the king a con- 
tribution of one hundred thousand florins. 

Torquato Conti, who, with all his severity of character, 
was a consummate genei-al, endeavored to render Stettin 
useless to the King of Sweden, as he could not deprive 
him of it. He intrenched himself upon the Oder, at 
Gratz, above Stettin, in order, by commanding that river, 
to cut off the water communication of the town with the 
rest of Germany. Nothing could induce him to attack 
the King of Sweden, who was his superior in numbers, 
while the latter was equally cautious not to storm the 
strong intrenchments of the Imperialists. Torquato, too 
deficient in troops and money to act upon the offensive 
against the king, hoped by this plan of operations to give 
time for Tilly to hasten to the defence of Pomerania, and 
then, in conjunction with that general, to attack the 
Swedes. Seizing the opportunity of the temporary 
absence of Gustavus, he made a sudden attempt upon 
Stettin, but the Swedes were not unprepared for him. 
A vigorous attack of the Imperialists was firmly repulsed, 
and Torquato was forced to retire with great loss. For 
this auspicious commencement of the war, however, Gus- 
tavus was, it must be owned, as much indebted to his 
good fortune as to his military talents. The imperial 
troops in Pomerania had been greatly reduced since Wal- 
lenstein's dismissal ; moreover, the outrages they had 
committed were now severely revenged upon them ; 
wasted and exhausted, the country no longer afforded 
them a subsistence. All discipline was at an end; the 
orders of the officers were disregarded, while their num- 
bers daily decreased by desertion, and by a general mor- 
tality, which the piercing cold of a strange climate had 
produced among them. 



144 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

Under these circumstances, the imiDerial general was 
anxious to allow his troops the repose of winter quarters, 
but he had to do with an enemy to whom the climate of 
Germany had no winter. Gustavus had taken the pre- 
caution of providing his soldiers with dresses of sheep- 
skin, to enable them to keep the field even in the most 
inclement season. The imperial plenipotentiaries, who 
came to treat with him for a cessation of hostilities, 
received this discouraging answer: "The Swedes are 
soldiers in winter as well as in summer, and not disposed 
to oppress the unfortimate peasantry. The Imperialists 
may act as they think proper, but they need not expect 
to remain undisturbed." Torquato Conti soon after 
resigned a command in which neither riches nor reputa- 
tion were to be gained. 

In this inequality of the two armies the advantage was 
necessarily on the side of the Swedes. The Imperialists 
Avere incessantly harassed in their winter quarters ; 
Greifenhagen, an important place upon the Oder, taken 
by storm, and the towns of Gratz and Piritz were at last 
abandoned by the enemy. In the whole of Pomerania 
Griefswald, Demmin, and Colberg alone remained in their 
hands, and these the king made great preparations to 
besiege. The enemy directed their retreat towards 
Brandenburg, in which much of their artillery and bag- 
gage, and many prisoners fell into the hands of the 
pursuers. 

By seizing the passes of Riebnitz and Damgarden Gus- 
tavus had opened a passage into Mecklenburg, whose in- 
habitants were invited to return to their allegiance under 
their legitimate sovereigns, and to expel the adherents of 
Wallenstein. The Imperialists, however, gained the im- 
portant town of Rostock by stratagem, and thus prevented 
the fai'ther advance of the king, who was unwilling to di- 
vide the forces. The exiled dukes of Mecklenburgh had 
ineffectually employed the princes assembled at Ratisbon 
to intercede with the Emperor ; in vain they had endeav- 
ored to soften Ferdinand, by renouncing the alliance of 
the king and every idea of resistance. But, driven to de- 
spair by the Emperor's inflexibility, they openly espoused 
the side of Sweden, and raising troops, gave the command 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 145 

of them to Francis Charles, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. 
That general made himself master of several strong places 
on the Elbe, but lost them afterwards to the Imperial Gen- 
eral Pappenheim, who was despatched to oppose him. 
Soon afterwards, besieged by the latter in the town of 
Ratzeburg, he was compelled to surrender with all his 
troops. Thus ended the attempt which these unfortunate 
princes made to recover their territories ; and it was re- 
served for the victorious arm of Gustavus Adolphus to 
render them that brilliant service. 

The Im.perialists had thrown themselves into Branden- 
burg, which now became the theatre of the most barbarous 
atrocities. These outrages were inflicted upon the sub- 
jects of a prince who had never injured the Emperor, and 
whom, moreover, he was at the very time inciting to take 
up arms against the King of Sweden. The sight of the 
disorders of their soldiers, which want of money compelled 
them to wink at, and of authority over their troops, ex- 
cited the disgust even of the Imperial generals, and, from 
very shame, their commander-in-chief. Count Schaumburg, 
wished to resign. 

Without a sufiicient force to protect his territories, and 
left by the Emperor, in spite of the most pressing remon- 
strances, without assistance, the Elector of Brandenburg 
at last issued an edict, ordering his subjects to repel force 
by force, and to put to death without mercy every Impe- 
rial soldier who should henceforth be detected in plun- 
dering. To such a height had the violence of outrage 
and the misery of the government risen that nothing was 
left to the sovereign but the desperate extremity of sanc- 
tioning private vengeance by a formal law. 

The Swedes had pursued the Imperialists into Branden- 
burg ; and only the Elector's refusal to open to him the 
fortress of Custrin for his march obliged the King to lay 
aside his design of besieging Frankfort on the Oder. He 
therefore returned to complete the conquest of Pome- 
rania by the capture of Demmin and Colberg. In the 
meantime, Field-Marshal Tilly w^^as advancing to the de- 
fence of Brandenburg. 

This general, who could boast as yet of never having 
suffered a defeat ; the conqueror of Mansfeld, of Duke 



146 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

Christian of Brunswick, of the Margrave of Baden, and 
the King of Denmark, was now, in the Swedish monarch, 
to meet an opponent worthy of his fame. Descended of a 
noble family in Liege, Tilly had formed his military talents 
in the wars of the Netherlands, which was then the great 
school for generals. He soon found an opportunity of 
distinguishing himself under Rodolph II. in Hungary, 
where he rapidly rose from one step to another. After 
the peace he entered into the service of Maximilian of 
Bavaria, who made him commander-in-chief with absolute 
powers. Here, by his excellent regulations, he was the 
founder of the Bavarian army; and to him, chiefly, Maxi- 
milian was indebted for his superiority in the field. Upon 
the termination of the Bohemian war he was appointed 
commander of the troops of the League ; and, after Wal- 
lenstein's dismissal, generalissimo of the Imperial armies. 
Equally stern towards his soldiers and implacable towards 
his enemies, and as gloomy and impenetrable as Wallen- 
stein, he was greatly his superior in probity and disinter- 
estedness. A bigoted zeal for religion and a bloody spirit 
of persecution co-operated with the natural ferocity of 
his character to make him the terror of the Protestants. 
A strange and terrific aspect bespoke his character; of low 
stature, thin, with hollow cheeks, a long nose, a broad and 
wrinkled forehead, large whiskers and a pointed chin ; he 
was generally attired in a Spanish doublet of green satin, 
with slashed sleeves, with a small high-peaked hat upon 
his head, surmounted by a red feather, which hung down 
to his back. His whole aspect recalled to recollection the 
Duke of Alva, the scourge of the Flemings ; and his ac- 
tions were far from effacing the impression. Such was 
the general who was now to be opposed to the hero of 
the north. 

Tilly was far from undervaluing his antagonist. "The 
King of Sweden," said he, in the Diet at Ratisbon, " is 
an enemy both prudent and brave, inured to war, and in 
the flower of his age. His plans are excellent, his re- 
sources considerable, his subjects enthusiastically attached 
to him. His army, composed of Swedes, Germans, 
Livonians, Finlanders, Scots, and English, by its devoted 
obedience to their leader, is blended into one nation ; he 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 147 

is a gamester in playing with whom not to have lost is to 
have won a great deal." 

The progress of the King of Sweden in Brandenburg 
and Pomerania left the new generalissimo no time to 
lose ; and his presence was now urgently called for by 
those who commanded in that quarter. With all expe- 
dition he collected the imperial troops which were dis- 
persed over the empire ; but it required time to obtain 
from the exhausted and impoverished provinces the 
necessary supplies. At last, about the middle of winter, 
he appeared at the head of twenty thousand men before 
Frankfort on the Oder, where he was joined by Schaum- 
burg. Leaving to this general the defence of Frankfort, 
with a sufficient garrison, he hastened to Pomerania with 
a view of saving Demmin and relieving Colberg, which 
was already hard pressed by the Swedes. But even 
before he had left Brandenburg, Demmin, which was but 
poorly defended by the Duke of Savelli, had surrendered 
to the king, and Colberg, after a five months' siege, was 
starved into a capitulation. As the passes in Upper 
Pomerania were well guarded, and the king's camp 
near Schwedt defied attack, Tilly abandoned his offen- 
sive plan of operations and retreated towards the Elbe to 
besiege Magdeburg. 

The capture of Demmin opened to the king a free 
passage into Mecklenburg ; but a more important enter- 
prise drew his arms into another quarter. Scarcely had 
Tilly commenced his retrograde movement, when sud- 
denly breaking up his camp at Schwedt, the king marched 
his whole force against Frankfort on the Oder. This 
town, badly fortified, was defended by a garrison of eight 
thousand men, mostly composed of those ferocious bands 
who had so cruelly ravaged Pomei-ania and Brandenburg. 
It was now attacked with such impetuosity that on the 
third day it was taken by storm. The Swedes, assured of 
victory, rejected every offer of capitulation, as they 
were resolved to exercise the dreadful right of retaliation. 
For Tilly, soon after his arrival, had surrounded a Swed- 
ish detachment, and, irritated by their obstinate resist- 
ance, had cut them in pieces to a man. This cruelty was 
not forgotten by the Swedes. "New Brandenburg 



148 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Quarter," they replied to the Imperialists who begged 
their lives, and slaughtered them without mercy. Several 
thousands were either killed or taken, and many were 
drowned in the Oder; the rest fled to Silesia. All their 
artillery fell into the hands of the Swedes. To satisfy 
the rage of his troops Gustavus Adolphus was under the 
necessity of giving up the town for three hours to 
plunder. 

While the king was thus advancing from one conquest 
to another, and by his success encouraging the Protest- 
ants to active resistance, the Emperor proceeded to 
enforce the Edict of Restitution, and by his exorbitant 
pretensions to exhaust the patience of the states. Com- 
pelled by necessity, he continued the violent course 
which he had begun with such arrogant confidence ; the 
difiiculties into which his arbitrary conduct had plunged 
him he could only extricate himself from by measures 
still more arbitrary. But in so comj^licated a body as 
the German empire despotism must always create the 
most dangerous convulsions. With astonishment the 
princes beheld the constitution of the empire overthrown, 
and the state of nature to which matters were again 
verging, suggested to them the idea of self-defence, the 
only means of protection in such a state of things. The 
steps openly taken by the Emperor against the Lutheran 
church had at last removed the veil from the eyes of 
John George, who had been so long the dupe of his 
artful policy. Ferdinand, too, had personally offended 
him by the exclusion of his son from the archbishopric 
of Magdeburg ; and field-marshal Arnheim, his new favor- 
ite and minister, spared no pains to increase the resent- 
ment of his master. Arnheim had formerly been an 
imperial general under Wallenstein, and being still zeal- 
ously attached to him, he was eager to avenge his old 
benefactor and himself on the Emperor by detaching 
Saxony from the Austrian interests. Gustavus Adolphus, 
supported by the Pi-otestant states, would be invincible ; 
a consideration which already filled the Emperor with 
alarm. The example of Saxony would probably influ- 
ence others, and the Emperor's fate seemed now in a 
manner to depend upon the Elector's decision. The 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 149 

artful favorite impressed upon his master this idea of his 
own importance, and advised him to terrify the Emperor 
by threatening an alliance with Sweden, and thus to 
extort from his fears what he had sought in vain from his 
gratitude. The favorite, however, was far from wishing 
him actually to enter into the Swedish alliance, but, by 
holding aloof from both parties, to maintain his own 
importance and independence. Accordingly he laid be- 
fore him a plan whicli only wanted a more able hand to 
carry it into execution, and recommended him, by head- 
ing the Protestant party, to erect a third power in Ger- 
many, and thereby maintain the balance between Sweden 
and Austria. 

This project was peculiarly flattering to the Saxon 
Elector, to whom the idea of being dependent on Sweden, 
or of longer submitting to the tyranny of the Emperor, 
was equally hateful. He could not, with indifference, 
see the control of German affairs wrested from him by a 
foreign prince ; and incapable as he was of taking a prin- 
cipal part, his vanity would not condescend to act a 
subordinate one. He resolved, therefore, to draw every 
possible advantage from the progress of Gustavus, but to 
pursue, independently, his own separate plans. With 
this view, he consulted with the Elector of Brandenburg, 
who, from similar causes, was ready to act against the 
Emperor, but, at the same time, was jealous of Sweden. 
In a Diet at Torgau, having assured himself of the sup- 
port of his Estates, he invited the Protestant States of 
the empire to a general convention, which took place at 
Leipzig on the 6th Februaiy, 1631. Brandenburg, Hesse 
Cassel, with several princes, counts, estates of the empire, 
and Protestant bishops were present, either personally or 
by deputy, at this assembly, which the chaplain to the 
court. Dr. Hoe von Hohenegg, opened with a vehement 
discourse from the pulpit. The Emperor had in vain 
endeavored to prevent this self-appointed convention, 
whose object was evidently to provide for its own de- 
fence, and which the presence of the Swedes in the empire 
rendered more than usually alarming. Emboldened by 
the progress of Gustavus Adolphus the assembled princes 
asserted their rights, and after a session of two months 



150 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

broke up Avith adopting a resolution which placed the 
Emperor in no slight embarrassment. Its import was 
to demand of the Emperor, in a general address, the 
revocation of the Edict of Restitution, the withdrawal 
of his troops from their capitals and fortresses, the 
suspension of all existing j^i'oceedings, and the aboli- 
tion of abuses ; and, in the meantime, to raise an army 
of forty thousand men to enable them to redress their 
own grievances if the Emperor should still refuse satis- 
faction. 

A further incident contributed not a little to increase 
the firmness of the Protestant princes. The King of 
Sweden had at last overcome the scruples which had 
deterred him from a closer alliance with France, and, on 
the 13th Januai-y, 1631, concluded a formal treaty with 
this crown. After a serious dispute respecting the treat- 
ment of the Roman Catliolic i^rinces of the empire, 
whom France took under her protection, and against 
whom Gustavus claimed the right of retaliation, and 
after some less important differences with regard to the 
title of majesty, which the pride of France was loth to 
concede to the King of Sweden, Richelieu yielded the 
second, and Gustavus Adolphus the first point, and the 
treaty was signed at Beerwald, in Neumark. The con- 
tracting parties mutually covenanted to defend each other 
with a military force, to protect their common friends, to 
restore to their dominions the deposed princes of the em- 
pire, and to replace everything, both on the frontier and 
in the interior of Germany, on the same footing on which 
it stood before the commencment of the war. For this 
end Sweden engaged to maintain an army of thirty thou- 
sand men in Germany, and France agreed to furnish the 
Swedes with an annual subsidy of four hundred thousand 
dollars. If the arms of Gustavus were successful he 
was to respect the Catholic religion and the constitution 
of the empire in all the conquered places, and to make 
no attempt against eitlier. All Estates and princes, 
whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, either in Ger- 
many or in other countries, were to be invited to become 
parties to the treaty ; neither France nor Sweden was to 
conclude a separate peace without the knowledge and 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 151 

consent of the other ; and the treaty itself was to con- 
tinue in force for five years. 

Great as was the struggle to the King of Sweden to re- 
ceive subsidies from France, and sacrifice his independ- 
ence in the conduct of the war, this alliance with France 
decided his cause in Germany. Protected as he now was by 
the greatest power in Europe, the German states began 
to feel confidence in his undertaking, for the issue of 
which they had hitherto good reason to tremble. He 
became truly formidable to the Emperor. The Roman 
Catholic princes, too, who, though they were anxious to 
humble Austria, had witnessed his progress with distrust, 
were less alarmed now that an alliance with a Roman 
Catholic power insured his respect for their religion. 
And thus, while Gustavus Adolphus protected the Prot- 
estant religion and the liberties of Germany against the 
aggression of Ferdinand, France secured those liberties, 
and the Roman Catholic religion, against Gustavus him- 
self, if the intoxication of success should hurry him be- 
yond the bounds of moderation. 

The King of Sweden lost no time in apprizing the 
members of the confederacy of Leipzig of the treaty con- 
cluded with France, and inviting them to a closer union 
with himself. The application was seconded by France, 
who spared no pains to win over the Elector of Saxony. 
Gustavus was willing to be content with secret support, 
if the princes should" deem it too bold a step as yet to de- 
clare openly in his favor. Several princes gave him hopes 
of his proposals being accepted on the first favorable 
opportunity; but the Saxcn Elector, full of jealousy and 
distrust towards the King of Sweden, and true to the 
selfish policy he had pursued, could not be prevailed upon 
to give a decisive answer. 

The resolution of the confederacy of Leipzig, and the 
alliance betwixt France and Sweden, were news equally 
disagreeable to the Emperor. Against them he employed 
the thunder of imperial ordinances, and the want of an 
army saved France from the full weight of his displeasure. 
Remonstrances were addressed to all the members of the 
confederacy, strongly prohibiting them from enlisting 
troops. They retorted with explanations equally vehe- 



152 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

ment, justified their conduct upon the principles of natural 
right, and continued their preparations. 

Meantime, the imperial generals, deficient both in 
troops and money, found themselves reduced to the dis- 
agreeable alternative of losing sight either of the King of 
Sweden, or of the Estates of the empire, since with a 
divided force they were not a match for either. The 
movements of the Protestants called their attention to 
the interior of the empire, while the progi-ess of the king 
in Brandenburg, by threatening the hereditary possessions 
of Austria, required them to turn their arms to that quar- 
ter. After the conquest of Frankfort, the king had 
advanced upon Landsberg on the Warta, and Tilly, after 
a fruitless attempt to relieve it, had again returned to 
Magdeburg, to prosecute with vigor the siege of that 
town. 

The rich archbishopric, of which Magdeburg was the 
capital, had long been in the possession of princes of the 
house of Brandenburg, who introduced the Protestant 
religion into the province. Christian William, the last 
administrator, had, by his alliance with Denmark, incurred 
the ban of the empire, on which account the chapter, to 
avoid the Emperor's displeasure, had formally deposed 
him. In his place they had elected Prince John Augus- 
tus, the second son of the Elector of Saxony, whom the 
Emperor rejected, in order to confer the archbishopric on 
his son Leopold. The Elector of Saxony complained 
ineffectually to the imperial court ; but Christian William 
of Brandenburg took more active measures. Relying on 
the attachment of the magistracy and inhabitants of 
Brandenbui-g, and excited by chimerical hopes, he thought 
himself able to surmount all the obstacles which the vote 
of the chapter, the competition of two powerful rivals, 
and the Edict of Restitution opposed to his restoration. 
He went to Sweden, and, by the promise of a diversion 
in Germany, sought to obtain assistance from Gustavus. 
He was dismissed by that monarch not without hopes 
of effectual protection, but with the advice to act with 
caution. 

Scarcely had Christian William been informed of the 
landing of his protector in Pomerania than he entered 



THE THIETY YEAES' WAE. 153 

Magdeburg in disguise. AjDpearing suddenly in the town 
council, he reminded the magistrates of the ravages 
which both town and country had suffered from the im- 
perial troops, of the pernicious designs of Ferdinand, and 
the danger of the Protestant church. He then informed 
them that the moment of deliverance was at hand, and 
that Gustavus Adolphus offered them his alliance and 
assistance. Magdeburg, one of the most flourishing 
towns in Germany, enjoyed under the government of its 
magistrates a republican freedom, which inspired its citi- 
zens with a brave heroism. Of this they had already given 
proofs, in tlie bold defence of their rights against Wallen- 
stein,who, tempted by their wealth, made on them the most 
extravagant demands. Their territory had been given 
up to the fury of his troops, though Magdeburg itself had 
escaped his vengeance. It was not difficult, therefore, 
for the Administrator to gain the concurrence of men in 
whose minds the remembrance of these outrages was still 
recent. An alliance was formed between the city and 
the Swedish king, by which Magdeburg granted to the 
king a free passage through its gates and territories, with 
liberty of enlisting soldiers within its boundaries, and, on 
the other hand, obtained promises of effectual protection 
for its religion and its privileges. 

The Administrator immediately collected troops and 
commenced hostilities, before Gustavus Adolphus was 
near enough to co-operate with him. He defeated some 
imperial detachments in the neighborhood, made a few 
conquests, and even surprised Halle. But the approach 
of an imperial army obliged him to retreat hastily, and 
not without loss, to Magdeburg. Gustavus Adolphus, 
though displeased with his premature measures, sent 
Dietrich Falkenberg, an experienced officer, to direct the 
Administrator's military operations, and to assist him 
with his counsel. Falkenberg was named by the magis- 
trates governor of the town during the war. The Prince's 
army was daily augmented by recruits from the neigh- 
boring towns ; and he was able for some months to main- 
tain a petty warfare with success. 

At length Count Pappenheim, having brought his expe- 
dition against the Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg to a close. 



154 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAE. 

approached the town. Driving the troops of the Admin- 
istrator from their entrenchments, he cut off his commun- 
ication with Saxony, and closely invested the place. He 
was soon followed by Tilly, who haughtily summoned the 
Elector forthwith to comply with the Edict of Restitution, 
to submit to the Emperor's orders, and surrender Magde- 
burg. The Prince's answer was spirited and resolute, and 
obliged Tilly at once to have recourse to arms. 

In the meanwhile the siege was jDrolonged, by the pro- 
gress of the King of Sweden, which called the Austrian 
general from before the place ; and the jealousy of the 
officers who conducted the operations in his absence 
delayed for some months the fall of Magdeburg. On the 
30th March, 1631, Tilly returned, to push the siege with 
vigor. 

The outworks were soon carried, and Falkenberg, after 
withdrawing the garrisons from the points which he could 
no longer hold, destroyed the bridge over the Elbe. As 
his troops were barely sufficient to defend the extensive 
fortifications, the suburbs of Sudenburg and Neustadt 
were abandoned to the enemy, who immediately laid 
them in ashes. Pappenheim, now separated from Tilly, 
crossed the Elbe at Schonenbeck, and attacked the town 
from the opposite side. 

The garrison, reduced by the defence of the outworks, 
scarcely exceeded two thousand infantry and a few 
hundred horse ; a small number for so extensive and 
irregular a fortress. To sujjply this deficiency, the citi- 
zens were armed, a desperate expedient, which produced 
more evils than those it prevented. The citizens, at best 
but indifferent soldiers, by their disunion threw the town 
into confusion. The poor complained that they were 
exposed to every hardship and danger, while the rich, by 
hiring substitutes, remained at home in safety. These 
rumors broke out at last in an open mutiny ; indifference 
succeeded to zeal; weariness and negligence took the 
place of vigilance and foresight. Dissension, combined 
with growing scarcity, gradually produced a feeling of 
despondency ; many began to tremble at the desperate 
nature of their undertaking, and the magnitude of the 
power to which they were opposed. But religious zeal, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 155 

an ardent love of liberty, an invincible hatred to the 
Austrian yoke, and the expectation of speedy relief, ban- 
ished as yet the idea of a surrender ; and, divided as they 
were in everything else, they were united in the resolve 
to defend themselves to the last extremity. 

Their hopes of succor were apparently well founded. 
They knew that the confederacy of Leipzig was arming ; 
they were aware of the near approach of Gustavus 
Adolphus. Both were alike interested in the preservation 
of Magdeburg; and a few days might bring the King of 
Sweden before its walls. All this was also known to 
Tilly, who, therefore, was anxious to make himself speed- 
ily master of the place. With this view he had despatched 
a trumpeter with letters to the Administrator, the com- 
mandant, and the magistrates, offering terms of capitu- 
lation ; but he received for answer, that they would 
rather die than surrender. A spirited sally of the citizens 
also convinced him that their courage was as earnest as 
their words, while the king's arrival at Potsdam, with the 
incursions of the Swedes as far as Zerbst, filled him with 
uneasiness, but raised the hopes of the garrison. A 
second trumpeter was now despatched ; but the more 
moderate tone of his demands increased the confidence 
of the besieged, and unfortunately their negligence also. 

The besiegers had now pushed their approaches as far as 
the ditch, and vigorously cannonaded the fortifications 
from the abandoned batteries. One tower was entirely 
overthrown, but this did not facilitate an assault, as it 
fell sidewise upon the wall, and not into the ditch. 
Notwithstanding the continual bombardment the walls 
had not suffered much ; and the fire balls, which were 
intended to set the town in flames, were deprived of 
their effect by the excellent precautions adopted against 
them. But the ammunition of the besieged was nearly 
expended, and the cannon of the town gradually ceased 
to answer the fire of the Imperialists. Before a new 
supply could be obtained Magdeburg would be either 
relieved or taken. The hopes of the besieged were on 
the stretch, and all eyes anxiously directed towards the 
quarter in which the Swedish banners were expected to 
appear. Gustavus Adolphus was near enough to reach 



156 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Magdeburg within three days ; security grew with hope, 
which all things contributed to augment. On the 9th of 
May, the fire of the Imperialists was suddenly stopj^ed, 
and the cannon withdrawn from several of the batteries. 
A deathlike stillness reigned in the Imperial camp. The 
besieged were convinced that deliverance was at hand. 
Both citizens and soldiers left their posts upon the 
ramparts early in the morning to indulge themselves, 
after their long toils, with the refreshment of sleep, but 
it was indeed a dear sleep, and a frightful awakening. 

Tilly had abandoned the hope of taking the town, 
before the arrival of the Swedes, by the means which he 
had hitherto adopted ; he therefore determined to raise 
the siege, but first to hazard a general assault. This 
plan, however, was attended with great difiiculties, as no 
breach had been effected, and the works were scarcely 
injured. But the council of war assembled on this occa^ 
sion declared for an assault, citing the example of Maes- 
tricht, which had been taken early in the morning, while 
the citizens and soldiers w^ere reposing themselves. The 
attack was to be made simultaneously on four points ; 
the night betwixt the 9th and 10th of May was employed 
in the neccessary preparations. Everything was ready 
and awaiting the signal, which was to be given by cannon 
at five o'clock in the morning. The signal, however, was 
not given for two hours later, during which Tilly, who 
was still doubtful of success, again consulted the council 
of war. Pappenheim was ordered to attack the works 
of the new town, where the attempt was favored by a 
sloping rampart, and a dry ditch of moderate depth. 
The citizens and soldiers had mostly left the walls, and 
the few who remained were overcome with sleep. This 
general, therefore, found little difficulty in mounting the 
wall at the head of his troops. 

Falkenberg, roused by the report of musketry, hastened 
from the town-house, where he was employed in despatch- 
ing Tilly's second trumpeter, and hurried with all the 
force he could hastily assemble towards the gate of the 
new town, which was already in the possession of the 
enemy. Beaten back, this intrepid general flew to 
another quarter, where a second party of the enemy were 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAE. 157 

preparing to scale the walls. After an ineffectual resist- 
ance he fell in the commencement of the action. The 
roaring of musketry, the pealing of the alarm-bells, and 
the growing tumult apprised, the awakening citizens of 
their danger. Hastily arming themselves, they rushed 
in blind confusion against the enemy. Still some hope 
of repulsing the besiegers remained ; but the governor 
being killed, their efforts were without plan and co-opera- 
tion, and at last their ammunition began to fail them. 
In the meanwhile, two other gates, hitherto unattacked, 
were stripped of their defenders, to meet the urgent 
danger within the town. The enemy quickly availed 
themselves of this confusion to attack these posts. The 
resistance was nevertheless spirited and obstinate, until 
four imperial regiments, at length, masters of the ram- 
parts, fell upon the garrison in the rear, and completed 
their rout. Amidst the general tumult, a brave captain, 
named Schmidt, who still headed a few of the more reso- 
lute against the enemy, succeeded in driving them to the 
gates; here he fell mortally wounded, and with him 
expired the hopes of Magdeburg. Before noon all the 
works were carried, and the town was in the enemy's 
hands. 

Two gates were now oj^ened by the storming-party for 
the main body, and Tilly marched in with part of his in- 
fantry. Immediately occupying the principal streets, he 
drove the citizens with pointed cannon into their dwell- 
ings, there to await their destiny. They were not long 
held in suspense ; a word from Tilly decided the fate of 
Magdeburg. 

Even a more humane general would in vain have 
recommended mercy to such soldiers ; but Tilly never 
made the attempt. Left by their general's silence mas- 
ters of the lives of all the citizens, the soldiery broke 
into the houses to satiate their most brutal appetites. 
The prayers of innocence excited some compassion in the 
hearts of the Germans, but none in the rude breasts of 
Pappenheim's Walloons. Scarcely had the savage cruelty 
commenced when the other gates were thrown open, and 
the cavalry, with the fearful hordes of the Croats, poured 
in upon the devoted inhabitants. 



158 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Here coranienced a scene of horrors for which history 
has no language, poetry no pencil. Neither innocent 
childhood, nor helpless old age ; neither youth, sex, rank, 
nor beauty could disarm the fury of the conquerors. 
Wives were abused in the arms of their husbands, 
daughters at the feet of their j^arents ; and the defence- 
less sex exposed to tlie double sacrifice of virtue and life. 
No situation, however obscure, or however sacred, escaped 
the rapacity of the enemy. In a single church tifty-tliree 
women were found beheaded. The Croats amused 
themselves with tlirowing children into the flames ; Pap- 
penheim's Walloons with stabbing infants at the mother's 
breast. Some officers of the League, horror-struck at 
this dreadful scene, ventured to remind Tilly that he had 
it in his power to stop the carnage. " Return in an hour," 
was his answer ; " I will see what I can do ; the soldier 
must have some reward for his dangers and toils." These 
horrors lasted with unabated fury, till at last the smoke 
and flames proved a check to the plunderers. To aug- 
ment the confusion, and to divert the resistance of the 
inhabitants, the imperialists had, in the commencement of 
the assault, fired the town in several places. The wind 
rising rapidly, spread the flames, till the blaze became 
i;niversal. Fearful, indeed, was the tumult amid clouds 
of smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of swords, the 
crash of falling ruins, and streams of blood. The atmos- 
phere glowed ; and the intolerable heat forced at last 
even the murderers to take refuge in their camp. In less 
than twelve hours this strong, populous, and flourishing 
city, one of the finest in Grermany, was reduced to ashes, 
with the exception of two churches and a few houses. 
The Administrator, Christian William, after receiving 
several wounds, was taken prisoner, with three of the 
burgomasters ; most of the officers and magistrates had 
already met an enviable death. The avarice of the officers 
had saved four hundred of the richest citizens in the hope 
of extorting from them an exorbitant ransom. But this 
humanity was confined to the officei'S of the League, 
whom the ruthless barbarity of the Imperialists caused to 
be regarded as guardian angels. 

Scarcely had the fury of the flames abated when the 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 159 

Imperialists returned to renew the pillage amid the ruins 
and ashes of the town. Many were suffocated by the 
smoke ; many found rich booty in the cellars, where the 
citizens had concealed their more valuable effects. On 
the 13th of May Tilly himself appeared in the town, 
after the streets had been cleared of ashes and dead 
bodies. Horrible and revolting to humanity was the 
scene that presented itself. The living crawling from 
under the dead, children wandering about with heart- 
rending cries, calling for their parents ; and infants still 
sucking the breasts of their lifeless mothers. More than 
six thousand bodies were thrown into the Elbe to clear 
the streets ; a much greater number had been consumed 
by the flames. The whole number of the slain was reck- 
oned at not less than thirty thousand. 

The entrance of the general, which took place on the 
14th, put a stop to the plunder, and saved the few who 
had hitherto contrived to escape. About a thousand 
people were taken out of the cathedral, where they had 
remained three days and two nights without food, and in 
momentary fear of death. Tilly promised them quarter, 
and commanded bread to be distributed among them. 
The next day a solemn mass was performed in the cathe- 
dral, and Te Deum sung amidst the discharge of artillery. 
The imperial general rode through the streets, that he 
might be able as an eye-witness to inform his master that 
no such conquest had been made since the destruction of 
Troy and Jerusalem. Nor was this an exaggeration, 
whether we consider the greatness, importance, and pros- 
perity of the city razed, or the fury of its ravagers. 

In Germany the tidings of the dreadful fate of Magde- 
burg caused triumphant joy to the Roman Catholics, 
while it spread terror and consternation among the Prot- 
estants. Loudly and generally they complained against 
the King of Sweden, who, with so strong a force, and in 
the very neighborhood, had left an allied city to its fate. 
Even the most reasonable deemed his inaction inexplicable ; 
and lest he should lose irretrievably the good-will of the 
people, for whose deliverance he had engaged in this war, 
Gustavus was under the necessity of publishing to the 
world a justification of his own conduct. 



160 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

He had attacked, and on the 16th April, carried Lands- 
berg, when he was apjarised of the danger of Magdeburg. 
He resolved immediately to march to the relief of that 
town ; and he moved with all his cavalry, and ten regi- 
ments of infantry towards the Spree. But the position 
which he held in Germany made it necessary that he 
should not move forward without securing his rear. In 
traversing a country where he was surrounded by sus- 
picious friends and dangerous enemies, and where a single 
premature movement might cut off his communication 
with his own kingdom, the utmost vigilance and caution 
were necessary. The Elector of Brandenburg had already 
opened the fortress of Custrin to the flying Imperialists, 
and closed the gates against their pursuers. If now Gus- 
tavus should fail in his attack upon Tilly the Elector 
might again open his fortresses to the Imperialists, and 
the king, with an enemy both in front and rear, would be 
irrecoverably lost. In order to prevent this contingency 
he demanded that the Elector should allow him to hold 
the fortresses of Custrin and Spandau till the siege of 
Magdeburg should be raised. 

Nothing could be more reasonable than this demand. 
The services which Gustavus had lately rendered the 
Elector, by expelling the Imperialists from Brandenburg, 
claimed his gratitude, while the past conduct of the 
Swedes in Germany entitled them to confidence. But by 
the surrender of his fortresses, the Elector would in some 
measure make the King of Sweden master of his country; 
besides that, by such a step, he miist at once break with 
the Emperor, and expose his States to his future ven- 
geance. The Elector's struggle with himself was long 
and violent, pusillanimity and self-intei-est for awhile pre- 
vailed. Unmoved by the fate of Magdeburg, cold in the 
cause of religion and the liberties of Germany, he saw 
nothing but his own danger; and this anxiety was greatly 
stimulated by his minister Van Schwartzenbui-gh, who was 
secretly in the pay of Austria. In the meantime the 
Swedish troops approached Berlin, and the king took up 
his residence with the Elector. When he witnessed the 
timorous hesitation of that prince, he could not restrain 
Lis indignation: "My road is to Magdeburg," said he; 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 161 

" not for my own advantage, but for that of the Protestant 
religion. If no one will stand by me I shall immediately 
retreat, conclude a peace with the Emperor, and return to 
Stockholm. I am convinced that Ferdinand will readily 
grant me whatever conditions I may require. But if 
Magdeburg is once lost, and the Emperor relieved from 
all fear of me, then it is for you to look to yourselves and 
the consequences." This timely threat, and perhaps, too, 
the aspect of the Swedish army, which was strong enough 
to obtain by force what was refused to entreaty, brought 
at last the Elector to his senses, and Spandau was deliv- 
ered into the hands of the Swedes. 

The king had now two routes to Magdeburg; one west- 
ward led through an exhausted country, and filled with 
the enemy's troops, who might dispute with him the pas- 
sage of the Elbe ; the other more to the southward, by 
Dessau and Wittenberg, where bridges were to be found 
for crossing the Elbe, and where supplies could easily be 
drawn from Saxony. But he could not avail himself of 
the latter without the consent of the Elector, whom Gus- 
tavus had good reason to distrust. Before setting out on 
his march, therefore, he demanded from that prince a free 
passage and liberty for purchasing provisions for his 
troops. His application was refused, and no remonstrances 
could prevail on the Elector to abandon his system of 
neutrality. While the point was still in dispute the news 
of the dreadful fate of Magdeburg arrived. 

Tilly announced its fall to the Protestant princes in 
the tone of a conquerer, and lost no time in making the 
most of the general consternation. The influence of the 
Emperor, which had sensibly declined during the rapid 
progress of Gustavus, after this decisive blow rose higher 
than ever ; and the change was speedily visible in the 
imperious tone he adopted towards the Protestant states. 
The decrees of the Confederation of Leipzig were an- 
nulled by a proclamation, the Convention itself suppressed 
by an imperial decree, and all the refractory states threat- 
ened with the fate of Magdeburg. As the executor of 
this imperial mandate, Tilly immediately ordered troops 
to march against the Bishop of Bremen, who was a mem- 
ber of the Confederacy, and had himself enlisted soldiers. 



162 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The terrified bishop immediately gave up his forces to 
Tilly, and signed the revocation of the acts of the Confed- 
eration. An imperial army, which had lately returned 
from Italy, under the command of Count Furstenberg, 
acted in the same manner towards the Administrator of 
Wirtemberg. The duke was compelled to submit to the 
Edict of Restitution, and all the decrees of the Emperor, 
and even to pay a monthly subsidy of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars for the maintenance of the imperial troops. 
Similar burdens were inflicted upon Ulm and Nuremberg, 
and the entire circles of Franconia and Swabia. The hand 
of the Emperor was stretched in terror over all Germany. 
The sudden preponderance, more in appearance, perhaps, 
than in reality, which he had obtained by this blow, 
carried him beyond the bounds even of the moderation 
which he had hitherto observed, and misled him into 
hasty and violent measures, which at last turned the 
wavering resolution of the German princes in favor of 
Gustavus Adolphus. Injurious as the immediate conse^' 
quences of the fall of Magdeburg were to the Protestant 
cause, its remoter effects were most advantageous. The 
past surprise made way for active resentment, despair 
inspired courage, and the German freedom rose, like a 
phoenix, from the ashes of Magdeburg. 

Among the princes of the Leipzig Confederation the 
Elector of Saxony and the Landgi'ave of Hesse were the 
most powerful ; and, until they were disarmed, the uni- 
versal authority of the Emperor was unconfirmed. Against 
the Landgrave, therefore, Tilly first directed his attack, 
and marched straight from Magdeburg into Thuringia. 
During this march the territories of Saxe, Ernest, and 
Schwartzburg were laid waste, and Frankenhausen plun- 
dered before the very eyes of Tilly, and laid in ashes with 
impunity. The unfortunate peasant paid dear for his 
master's attachment to the interests of Sweden. Erfurt, 
the key of Saxony and Franconia, was tlireatened with a 
siege, but redeemed itself by a voluntary contribution of 
money and provisions. From thence Tilly despatched 
his emissaries to the Landgrave, demanding of him the 
immediate disbanding of his army, a renunciation of the 
ieague of Iicipzig, the reception of imperial garrisons into 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 163 

his territories and fortresses, with the necessary contri. 
butions, and the declaration of friendship or hostility. 
Such was the treatment which a prince of the Empire 
was compelled to submit to from a servant of the 
Emperor. But these extravagant demands acquired a 
formidable weight from the power which supported 
them ; and the dreadful fate of Magdeburg, still fresh in 
the memory of the Landgrave, tended still farther to 
enforce them. Admirable, therefore, was the intrej^idity 
of the Landgrave's answer: "To admit foreign troops 
into his capital and fortresses the Landgrave is not 
disposed ; his troops he requires for his own purj^oses ; 
as for an attack, he can defend himself. If General Tilly 
wants money or provisions, let him go to Munich, where 
there is plenty of both." The irruption of two bodies of 
imperial troops into Hesse Cassel was the immediate 
result of this spirited reply, but the Landgrave gave 
them so warm a reception that they could effect nothing; 
and just as Tilly was preparing to follow with his whole 
army, to punish the unfortunate country for the firmness 
of its sovereign, the movements of the King of Sweden 
recalled him to another quarter. 

Gustavus Adolphus had learned the fall of Magdeburg 
with deep regret ; and the demand now made by the 
Elector, George William, in terms of their agreement, for 
the restoration of Spandau, greatly increased this feeling. 
The loss of Magdeburg had rather augmented than 
lessened the reasons which made the possession of this 
fortress so desirable ; and the nearer became the necessity 
of a decisive battle between himself and Tilly, the more 
unwilling he felt to abandon the only place which, in the 
event of a defeat, could insure him a refuge. After a 
vain endeavor by entreaties and representations to bring 
over the Elector to his views, whose coldness and luke- 
warmness daily increased, he gave orders to his general to 
evacuate Spandau, but at the same time declared to the 
Elector that he would henceforth regard him as an 
enemy. 

To give weight to this declaration, he appeared with 
his whole force before Berlin. "I will not be worse 
treated that the imperial generals," was his reply to the 



164 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

ambassadors whom the bewildered Elector despatched to 
his camp. "Your master has received them into his 
territories, furnished them with all necessary supplies, 
ceded to them every place which they required, and yet, 
by all these concessions he could not prevail upon then 
to treat his subjects with common humanity. All that 
require of him is security, a moderate sum of money, ant. 
provisions for my troops ; in return I promise to protect 
his country, and to keep the war at a distance from him. 
On these points, liowever, I must insist ; and my brother, 
the Elector, must instantly determine to have me as a 
friend, or to see his capital plundered." This decisive 
tone produced a due impression ; and the cannon pointed 
against the town put an end to the doubts of George 
William. In a few days, a treaty was signed, by which 
the Elector engaged to furnish a monthly subsidy of 
thirty thousand dollars, to leave Spandau in the king's 
hands, and to open Custrin at all times to the Swedish 
troops. This now open alliance of the Elector of Bran- 
denburg with the Swedes excited no less displeasure at 
Vienna than did formerly the similar procedure of the 
Duke of Pomerania ; but the changed fortune which now 
attended his arms obliged the Emj^eror to confine hia 
resentment to words. 

The king's satisfaction, on this favorable event, wag 
increased by the agreeable intelligence that Griefsvvald, 
the only fortress which the Imperialists still held in 
Pomerania, had surrendered, and that the whole country 
was now free of the enemy. He appeared once more in 
this duchy, and was gratified at the sight of the general 
joy which he had caused to the people. A year had 
elapsed since Gustavus first entered Germany, and this 
event was now celebrated by all Pomerania as a national 
festival. Shortly before the Czar of Moscow had sent 
ambassadors to congratulate him, to renew his alliance, 
and even to offer him troops. He had great reason to 
rejoice at the friendly disposition of Russia, as it was 
indispensable to his interests that Sweden itself should 
remain undisturbed by any dangerous neighbor dui'ing 
the war in wlilch he himself was engaged. Soon after 
his queen, Maria Eieonora, lauded in Pomerania, with a 



WAR. 165 

reinforcement of eight thousand Swedes ; and the arrival 
of six thousand English, under the Marquis of Hamilton, 
requires more particular notice, because this is all that 
history mentions of the English during the Thirty Year's 
War. 

During Tilly's expedition into Thuringia, Pappenheim 
commanded in Magdeburg ; but was unable to prevent 
the Swedes from crossing the Elbe at various points, rout- 
ing some imperial detachments, and seizing several posts. 
He himself, alarmed at the approach of the King of 
Sweden, anxiously recalled Tilly, and prevailed upon 
him to return by rapid marches to Magdeburg. Tilly 
encamped on this side of the river at Wolmerstadt; 
Gustavus on the same side, near Werben, not far from 
the confluence of the Havel and the Elbe. His very 
arrival portended no good to Tilly. The Swedes routed 
three of his regiments which were posted in villages at 
some distance from the main body, carried off half their 
baggage, and burned the remainder. Tilly in vain ad- 
vanced within cannon-shot of the king's camp, and offered 
him battle. Gustavus, weaker by one-half than his adver- 
sary, prudently declined it; and his position was too 
strong for an attack. Nothing more ensued but a distant 
cannonade, and a few skirmishes, in which the Swedes 
had invariably the advantage. In his retreat to Wolmer- 
stadt, Tilly's army was weakened by numerous desertions. 
Fortune seemed to have forsaken him since the carnage 
of Magdeburg. 

The King of Sweden, on the contrary, was followed by 
uninterrupted success. While he himself was encamped 
in Werben, the whole of Mecklenburg, with the exception 
of a few towns, was conquered by his General Tott and 
the Duke Adolphus Frederick ; and he enjoyed the satis- 
faction of reinstating both dukes in their dominions. He 
proceeded in person to Gustrow, where the reinstatement 
was solemnly to take place, to give additional dignity to 
the ceremony by his presence. The two dukes, with 
their deliverer between them, and attended by a splendid 
train of princes, made a public entry into the city, which 
the joy of their subjects converted into an affecting 
solemnity. Soon after his return to Werben, the Land- 



166 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

grave of Hesse Cassel appeared in bis camp, to conclude 
an offensive and defensive alliance ; the first sovereign 
prince in Germany who voluntary and openly declared 
against the Emperor, though not wholly uninfluenced by 
strong motives. The Landgrave bound himself to act 
against the king's enemies as his own, to open to him his 
towns and territory, and to furnish his army with pro- 
visions and necessaries. The king, on the other hand, 
declared himself his ally and protector; and engaged to 
conclude no peace with the Emperor without first obtain- 
ing for the Landgrave a full redress of grievances. Both 
parties honorably performed their agreement. Hesse 
Cassel adhered to the Swedish alliance during the whole 
of this tedious war ; and at the peace of Wes.tphalia had 
no reason to regret the friendship of Sweden. 

Tilly, from whom this bold step on the part of the 
Landgrave was not long concealed, despatched Count 
Fugger with several regiments against him ; and at the 
same time endeavored to excite his subjects to rebellion 
by inflammatory letters. But these made as little impres- 
sion as his troops, which subsequently failed him so 
decidedly at the battle of Breitenfeld. The Estates 
of Hesse could not for a moment hesitate between their 
oppressor and their protector. 

But the imperial general was far more disturbed by 
the equivocal conduct of the Elector of Saxony, who, in 
defiance of the imperial prohibition, continued his prepa- 
rations, and adhered to the confederation at Leipzig. 
At tliis conjuncture, when the proximity of the King 
of Sweden made a decisive battle ere long inevitable, it 
appeared extremely dangerous to leave Saxony in arms, 
and ready in a moment to declare for the enemy. Tilly 
had just received a reinforcement of twenty-five thousand 
veteran troops under Furstenberg, and, confident in his 
strengtli, he hoped either to disarm the Elector by the 
mere terror of his arrival, or at least to conquer him 
with little difiiculty. Before quitting his camp at Wol- 
merstadt, he commanded the Elector, by a special mes- 
senger, to open his territories to the imperial troops ; 
either to disband his own or to join them to the imperial 
Rrmy; and to assist, in conjunction with himself, in 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. l67 

driving the King of Sweden out of Germany. While 
he reminded him that, of all the German states, Saxony- 
had hitherto been most respected, he threatened it, in 
case of refusal, with the most destructive ravages. 

But Tilly had chosen an unfavorable moment for so 
imperious a requisition. The ill-treatment of his religious 
and political confederates, the destruction of Magde- 
burg, the excesses of the Imperialists in Lusatia, all com' 
bined to incense the Elector against the Emperor. The 
approach, too, of Gustavus Adolphus (however slender his 
claims were to the protection of that prince) tended to 
fortify his resolution. He accordingly forbade the quar- 
tering of the imperial soldiers in his territories, and 
announced his firm determination to persist in his warlike 
preparations. However surprised he should be, he added, 
" To see an imperial army on its march against his terri- 
tories, when that army had enough to do in watching the 
operations of the King of Sweden, nevertheless he did 
not expect, instead of the promised and well-merited 
rewards, to be repaid with ingratitude and the ruin of 
his country." To Tilly's deputies, who were entertained 
in a princely style, he gave a still plainer answer on the 
occasion. " Gentlemen," said he, " I perceive that the 
Saxon confectionery, which has been so long kept back, 
is at length to be set upon the table. But as it is usual 
to mix it with nuts and garnish of all kinds, take care 
of your teeth." 

Tilly instantly broke up his camp, and, with the most 
frightful devastation, advanced upon Halle ; from this 
place he renewed his demands on the Elector, in a tone 
still more urgent and threatening. The previous policy 
of this prince, both from his own inclination, and the 
persuasions of his corrupt ministers, had been to promote 
the interests of the Emperor, even at the expense of his 
own sacred obligations, and but very little tact had 
hitherto kept him inactive. All this but renders more 
astonishing the infatuation of the Emperor or his minis- 
ters in abandoning, at so critical a moment, the policy 
they had hitherto adopted, and, by extreme measures, 
incensing a prince so easily led. Was this the very 
abject which Tilly had in view? Was it his purpose 



16S THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

to convert an equivocal friend into an oj^en enemy, and 
thus to relieve himself from the necessity of that indul- 
gence in the treatment of this ]3rince which the secret 
instructions of the Emperor had hitherto imposed upon 
him? Or was it the Emperor's wish, by driving the 
Elector to open hostilities, to get quit of his obligations 
to him, and so cleverly to break off at once the difficulty 
of a reckoning? In either case we must be equally sur- 
prised at the daring presumption of Tilly, who hesitated 
not, in presence of one formidable enemy, to provoke 
another ; and at his negligence in permitting, without 
opposition, the union of the two. 

The Saxon Elector, rendered desperate by the entrance 
of Tilly into his territories, threw himself, though not 
without a violent struggle, under the protection of 
Sweden. 

Immediately after dismissing Tilly's first embassy, he 
had despatched Iiis field-marshal Arnheim in all haste to 
the camp of Gustavus, to solicit the prompt assistance of 
that monarch whom he had so long neglected. The king 
concealed the inward satisfaction he felt at this long 
wislied for result. "I am sorry for the Elector," said he, 
with dissembled coldness, to the ambassador ; " had he 
heeded my repeated remonstrances his country would 
never have seen the face of an enemy, and Magdeburg 
would not have fallen. Now, when necessity leaves him 
no alternative, he has recourse to my assistance. But 
tell him, that I cannot, for the sake of the Elector of 
Saxony, ruin my own cause and that of my confederates. 
What pledge have I for the sincerity of a prince whose 
minister is in the j^ay of Austria, and who will abandon 
me as soon as the Emperor flatters him, and withdraws 
his troops -from his frontiers ? Tilly, it is true, has 
received a strong reinforcement ; but this shall not pre. 
vent me from meeting him with confidence, as soon as I 
have covered my rear." 

The Saxon minister could make no other reply to these 
reproaches than that it was best to bury the past in 
oblivion. 

He pressed the king to name the conditions on which he 
would afford assistance to Saxony, and offered to guar- 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 169 

antee their acceptance. "I require," said Gustavus, 
"that the Elector shall cede to me the fortress of Wit- 
tenberg, deliver to me his eldest sons as hostages, furnish 
my troops with three months' pay, and deliver up to me 
the traitors among his ministry." 

"Not Wittenberg alone," said the Elector, when he 
received this answer, and hurried back his minister to 
the Swedish camp, "not Wittenberg alone, but Toi'gau, 
and all Saxony, shall be open to him ; my whole family 
shall be his hostages, and if that is insufficient, I will 
place myself in his hands. Return and inform him I am 
ready to deliver to him any traitors he shall name, to 
furnish his army with the money he requires, and to 
venture my life and fortune in the good cause. 

The king had only desired to test the sincerity of the 
Elector's new sentiments. Convinced of it, he now re- 
tracted these harsh demands. " The distrust," he said, 
" which was shown to myself when advancing to the relief 
of Magdeburg had naturally excited mine; the Elector's 
present confidence demands a return. I am satisfied, 
provided he grants my army one month's pay, and even for 
his advance I hope to indemnify him." 

Immediately upon the conclusion of the treaty, the 
king crossed the Elbe, and next day joined the Saxons. 
Instead of preventing this junction, Tilly had advanced 
against Leipzig, which he summoned to receive an 
imperial garrison. In hopes of speedy relief, Hans 
Von der Pforta, the commandant, made preparations for 
his defence, and laid the suburb towards Halle in ashes. 
But the ill condition of the fortifications made resistance 
vain, and on the second day the gates were opened. Tilly 
had fixed his headquarters in the house of a grave-digger, 
the only one still standing in the suburb of Halle ; here 
he signed the capitulation, and here, too, he arranged 
his attack on the King of Sweden. Tilly grew pale at 
the representation of the death's-head and cross-bones 
with which the proprietor had decorated his house ; and, 
contrary to all expectations, Leipzig experienced moderate 
treatment. 

Meanwliile, a council of war was held at Torgau 
between the King of Sweden and the Elector of Saxony, 



170 THE THIETY YEARS* WAR. 

at which the Elector of Brandenburg was also present. 
The resolution which should now be adopted was to 
decide irrevocably the fate of Germany and the Prot- 
estant religion, the happiness of nations and the destiny 
of their princes. The anxiety of suspense which, before 
every decisive resolve, oppresses even the hearts of 
heroes, appeared now for a moment to overshadow the 
great mind of Gustavus Adolphus. " If we decide upon 
battle," said he, " the stake will be nothing less than a 
crown and two electorates. Fortune is changeable, and 
the inscrutable decrees of Heaven may, for our sins, give 
the victory to our enemies. My kingdom, it is true, even 
after the loss of my life and my army, would still have a 
hope left. Far removed from the scene of action, de- 
fended by a powerful fleet, a well-guarded frontier, and a 
warlike population, it would at least be safe from the 
worst consequences of a defeat. But what chances of 
escape are there for you, with an enemy so close at 
hand?" Gustavus Adolphus displayed the modest dif- 
fidence of a hero, whom an overweening belief of his own 
strength did not blind to the greatness of his danger ; 
John George, the confidence of a weak man, who knows 
that he has a hero by his side. Impatient to rid his 
territories as soon as possible of the oppressive presence 
of two armies, he burned for a battle, in which he had 
no former laurels to lose. He was ready to march with 
his Saxons alone against Leipzig, and attack Tilly, At 
last Gustavus acceded to his opinion ; and it was resolved 
that the attack should be made without delay, before 
the arrival of the reinforcements, which were on their 
way, under Altringer and Tiefenbach. The united 
Swedish and Saxon armies now crossed the Mulda, 
while the Elector returned homeward. 

Early on the morning of the 7th September, 1631, the 
hostile armies came in sight of each other. Tilly, who, 
since he had neglected the opportunity of overpowering 
the Saxons before their union with the Swedes, was dis- 
posed to await the arrival of the reinforcements, had 
taken up a strong and advantageous position not far from 
Leipzig, where he expected he should be able to avoid the 
battle. But the impetuosity of Pappenheim obliged him, 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 171 

as soon as the enemy were in motion, to alter his plans, 
and to move to the left, in the direction of the hills which 
run from the village of Wahren towards Lindenthal. At 
the foot of these heights his army was drawn up in a sin- 
gle line, and his artillei-y placed upon the heights behind, 
from which it could sweep the whole extensive plain of 
Breiteufeld. The Swedish and Saxon army advanced in 
two columns, having to pass the Lober near Podelwitz, 
in Tilly's front. 

To defend the passage of this rivulet, Pappenheim ad- 
vanced at the head of two thousand cuirassiers, though 
after great reluctance on the part of Tilly, and with ex- 
press orders not to commence a battle. But, in disobe- 
dience to this command, Pappenheim attacked the van- 
guard of the Swedes, and after a brief struggle was driven 
to retreat. To check the progress of the enemy, he set 
fire to Podelwitz, which, however, did not prevent the two 
columns from advancing and forming in order of battle. 

On the right, the Swedes drew u]) in a double line, the 
infantry in the centre, divided into such small battalions 
as could be easily and rapidly manoeuvred without breaking 
their order ; the cavalry upon their wings, divided in the 
same manner into small squadrons, interspersed with 
bodies of musqueteers, so as both to give an appearance 
of greater numerical force, and to annoy the enemy's 
horse. Colonel Teufel commanded the centre, Gustavus 
Horn the left, while the right was led by the king in 
person, opposed to Count Pappenheim. 

On the left, the Saxons foi'med at a considerable distance 
from the Swedes, by the advice of Gustavus, which Avas 
justified by the event. The order of battle had been ar- 
ranged between the Elector and his field-marshal, and 
the king was content with merely signifying his approval. 
He was anxious apparently to separate the Swedish prow- 
ess from that of the Saxons, and fortune did not confound 
them. 

The enemy was drawn up under the heights towards 
the west, in one immense line, long enough to outflank the 
Swedish army, the infantry being divided in large bat- 
talions, the cavalry in equally unwieldly squadrons. The 
artillery being on the heights behind, the range of its fire 



172 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 

was over the heads of his men. From this position of his 
artillery it was evident that Tilly's purpose was to await 
rather than to attack the enemy ; since this arrangement 
rendered it impossible for him to do so without exposing 
his men to the fire of his own cannons. Tilly himself com- 
manded the centre, Count Furstenherg the right wing, and 
Pappenbeim the left. The united troops of the Emperor 
and the League on this day did not amount to thirty-four 
thousand or thirty-five thousand men; the Swedes and 
Saxons were about the same number. But had a million 
been confronted with a million it could only have ren- 
dered the action more bloody, certainly not more impor- 
tant and decisive. For this day Gustavus had crossed the 
Baltic to court danger in a distant country, and expose 
his crown and life to the caprice of fortune. The two 
greatest generals of the time, both hitherto invincible, 
were now to be matched against each other in a contest 
which both had long avoided ; and on this field of battle 
the hitherto untarnished laurels of one leader must droop 
forever. The two parties in Germany had beheld the 
approach of this day with fear and trembling; and the 
whole age awaited with deep anxiety its issue, and pos- 
terity was either to bless or deplore it forever. 

Tilly's usual intrepidity and resolution seemed to for- 
sake him on this eventful day. He had formed no reg- 
ular plan for giving battle to the king, and he displayed 
as little firmness in avoiding it. Contrary to his own 
judgment, Pappenheim had forced him to action. Doubts 
which he had never before felt struggled in his bosom ; 
gloomy forebodings clouded his ever-open brow; the 
shade of Magdeburg seemed to hover over him. 

A cannonade of two hours commenced the battle ; the 
wind, which was from the west, blew thick clouds of 
smoke and dust from the newly-ploughed and parched 
fields into the faces of the Swedes. This compelled the 
king insensibly to wheel northwards, and the rapidity 
with which this movement was executed left no time to 
the enemy to prevent it. 

Tilly at last left his heights, and began the first attack 
upon the Swedes ; but to avoid their hot fire, he filed off 
towards the right, and fell upon the Saxons with such 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 173 

impetuosity that their line was broken, and the whole 
army thrown into confusion. The Elector himself retired 
to Eilenburg, though a few regiments still maintained 
their ground upon the field, and by a bold stand saved 
the honor of Saxony. Scarcely had the confusion began 
ere the Croats commenced plundering, and messengers 
were despatched to Munich and Vienna with the news of 
the victory. 

Pappenheini had thrown himself with the whole force 
of his cavalry upon the right wing of the Swedes, but 
without being able to make it waver. The king com- 
manded here in person, and under him General Banner. 
Seven times did Pappenheim renew the attack, and seven 
times was he repulsed. He fled at last with great loss, 
and abandoned the field to his conqueror. 

In the meantime, Tilly, having routed the remainder 
of tlie Saxons, attacked Avith his victorious troops the left 
wing of the Swedes. To this wing the king, as soon as 
he perceived that the Saxons were thrown into disorder, 
had, with a ready foresight, detached a reinforcement of 
three regiments to cover its flank, which the flight of the 
Saxons had left exposed. Gustavus Horn, who com- 
manded here, showed the enemy's cuirassiers a spirited 
resistance, which the infantry, interspersed among the 
squadrons of horse, materially assisted. The enemy were 
already beginning to relax the vigor of their attack, when 
Gustavus Adolphus appeared to terminate the contest. 
The left wing of the Imperialists had been routed ; and 
the king's division, having no longer any enemy to 
oppose, could now turn their arms wherever it would be 
to the most advantage. Wheeling, therefore, with his 
right wing and main body to the left, he attacked the 
heights on which the enemy's artillery was planted. 
Gaining possession of them in a short time, he turned 
upon the enemy the full fire of their own cannon. 

The play of artillery upon their flank, and the terrible 
onslaught of the Swedes in front, threw this hitherto in- 
vincible army into confusion. A sudden retreat was the 
only course left to Tilly, but even this was to be made 
through the midst of the enemy. The whole army was 
in disorder, with the exception of four regiments o| 



174 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

veteran soldiers, who never as yet had fled from the field, 
and were resolved not to do so now. Closing their ranks, 
they broke through the thickest of the victorious army, 
and gained a small thicket, where they opposed a new 
front to the Swedes, and maintained their resistance till 
night, when their number was reduced to six hundred 
men. With them fled the wreck of Tilly's army, and the 
battle was decided. 

Amid the dead and the wounded, Gustavus Adolphus 
threw himself on his knees; and the first joy of his 
victory gushed forth in fervent prayer. He ordered his 
cavalry to pursue the enemy as long as the darkness of 
the night would permit. The pealing of the alarm-bells 
set the inhabitants of all the neighboring villages in 
motion, and utterly lost was the unhappy fugitive who 
fell into their hands. The king encamjaed with the rest 
of his army between the field of battle and Leipzig, as it 
was impossible to attack the town the same night. Seven 
thousand of the enemy were killed in the field, and more 
than five thousand either wounded or taken prisoners. 
Their whole artillery and camp fell into the hands of the 
Swedes, and more than a hundred standards and colors 
were taken. Of the Saxons about two thousand had 
fallen, while the loss of the Swedes did not exceed seven 
hundred. The rout of the Imperialists was so complete 
that Tilly, on his retreat to Halle and Halberstadt, could 
not rally above six hundred men, or Pappenheim more 
than one thousand four hundred — so rapidly was this 
formidable army dispersed which so lately was the terror 
of Italy and Germany. 

Tilly himself owed his escape merely to chance. Ex- 
hausted by his wounds, he still refused to surrender to a 
Swedish captain of horse, who summoned him to yield ; 
but who, when he was on the point of putting him to 
death, was himself stretched on the ground by a timely 
pistol-shot. But more grievous than danger or wounds 
was the pain of surviving his reputation, and of losing in 
a single day the fruits of a long life. All former victories 
were as nothing, since he had failed in gaining the one 
that should have crowned them all. Nothing remained 
of all his past exploits but the general execration which 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 175 

had followed them. From this period he never recovered 
his cheerfulness or his good fortune. Even his last con- 
solation, the hope of revenge, was denied to him, by the 
express command of the Emperor not to risk a decisive 
battle. 

The disgrace of this day is to be ascribed principally to 
three mistakes : his planting the cannon on the hills 
behind him, his afterwards abandoning these heights, and 
his allowing the enemy, without opposition, to form in 
order of battle. But how easily might those mistakes 
have been rectified, had it not been for the cool presence 
of mind and superior genius of his adversary! 

Tilly fled from Halle to Halberstadt, where he scarcely 
allowed time for the cure of his wounds before he hurried 
towards the Weser to recruit his force by the imperial 
garrisons in Lovx^er Saxony. 

The Elector of Saxony had not failed, after the danger 
was over, to appear in Gustavus' camp. The king 
thanked him for having advised a battle ; and the Elector, 
charmed at his friendly reception, promised him, in the 
first transports of joy, the Roman crown. Gustavus set 
out next day for Merseburg, leaving the Elector to recover 
Leipzig. Five thousand Imperialists, who had collected 
together after the defeat, and whom he met on his march, 
were either cut in pieces or taken prisoners, of whom again 
the greater part entered into his service. Merseburg 
quickly surrended ; Halle was soon after taken, whither 
the Elector of Saxony, after making himself master of 
Leipzig, repaired to meet the king, and to concert their 
future plan of operations. 

The victory was gained, but only a prudent use of it 
could render it decisive. The imperial armies were 
totally routed. Saxony free from the enemy, and Tilly 
had retired into Brunswick. To have followed him 
thither would have been to renew the war in Lower 
Saxony, which had scarcely recovered from the ravages 
of the last. It was therefore determined to carry the war 
into the enemy's country, which, open and defenceless as 
far as Vienna, invited attack. On their right, they 
might fall upon the territories of the Roman Catholic 
princes, or penetrate, on the left, into the hereditary do- 



176 

minions of Austria, and make the Emperor tremble in his 
palace. Both plans were resolved on ; and the question 
that now remained was to assign its respective parts. 
Gustavus Adolphus, at the head of a victorious army, had 
little resistance to apprehend in his progress from Leipzig 
to Prague, Vienna, and Presburg. As to Bohemia, 
Moravia, Austria, and Hungary, they had been stripped 
of their defenders, while the oppressed Protestants in 
these countries were ripe for a revolt. Ferdinand was 
no longer secure in his capital ; Vienna, on the first terror 
of surprise, would at once open its gates. The loss of his 
territories Avould depi'ive the enemy of the resources by 
which alone the war could be maintained ; and Ferdinand 
would, in all probability, gladly accede, on the hardest 
conditions, to a j)eace which would remove a formidable 
enemy from the heart of his dominions. This bold plan 
of operations was flattering to a conqueror, and success 
perhaps might have justified it. But Gustavus Adolphus, 
as jDrudent as he was brave, and more a statesman than a 
conqueror, rejected it, because he had a higher end in 
view, and would not trust the issue either to bravery or 
good fortune alone. 

By marching towards Bohemia, jLiranconia and the 
Upper Rhine would be left to the Elector of Saxony. 
But Tilly had already began to recruit his shattered army 
from the garrisons in Lower Saxony, and was likely to be 
at the head of a formidable force upon the Weser, and 
to lose no time in marching against the enemy. To so 
experienced a general it would not do to oppose an 
Arnheim, of Avhose military skill the battle of Leipzig 
had afforded but equivocal proof; and of what avail 
would be the rapid and brilliant career of the king in 
Bohemia and Austria if Tilly should recover his su- 
periority in the Empire, animating the courage of the 
Roman Catholics, and disarming, by a new series of vic- 
tories, the allies and confederates of the king? What 
would he gain by expelling the Emperor from his heredi- 
tary dominions if Tilly succeeded in conquering for that 
Emperor the rest of Germany? Could he hope to reduc^ 
the Emperor more than had been done, twelve years 
before, by the insurrection of Bohemia, which had failed. 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 17 < 

to shake the firmness or exhaust the resources of that 
prince, and from which he had risen more formidable 

than ever ? , i . 

Less brilliant, but more sohd, were the advantages 
which he had to expect from an incursion into tlie terri- 
tories of the Leaoue. In this quarter his appearance in 
arms would be decisive. At this very conjunctiire the 
princes were assembled in a Diet at Frankfort to deliber- 
ate upon tlie Edict of Restitution, where Ferdinand 
employed all his artful policy to persuade the intimidated 
Protestants to accede to a speedy and disadvantageous 
arrangement. The advance of their protector could 
alone encourage them to a bold resistance and disappoint 
the Emperor's designs. Gustavus Adolphus hoped by 
his presence to unite the discontented princes, or by the 
terror of his arms to detach them from the Emperor s 
party. Here, in the centre of Germany, he could_ para- 
lyze the nerves of the imperial power, which, without 
the aid of the League, must soon fall ; here, m the neigh- 
borhood of France, he could watch the movements ot a 
suspicious ally ; and however important to his secret 
views it was to cultivate the friendship of the Koman 
Catholic electors, he saw the necessity of making himself 
first of all master of their fate, in order to establish, by 
his magnanimous forbearance, a claim to their gratitude. 
He accordingly chose the route to Franconia and the 
Rhine, and left the conquest of Bohemia to the Elector 
of Saxony. 



BOOK IIL 



The glorious battle of Leipzig effected a great change 
in the conduct of Gustavus Adolphus, as well as m the 
opinion which both friends and foes entertained of him. 
Successfully had he confronted the greatest general of 
the age, and had matched the strength of his tactics and 
the courage of his Swedes against the elite of the impe- 



l78 THE THIKTY YEARS' WAP:. 

rial army, the most experienced trooj^s in Europe. From 
this moment he felt a firm confidence in his own powers; 
self-confidence has always been the 2:)arent of great actions. 
In all his subsequent operations more boldness and de- 
cision are observable; greater determination, even amidst 
the most unfavorable circumstances, a more lofty tone 
towards his adversaries, a more dignified bearing towards 
his allies, and even in his clemency, something of the 
forbearance of a conqueror. His natural courage was 
farther heightened by the pious ardor of his imagination. 
He saw in his own cause that of heaven, and in the defeat 
of Tilly beheld the decisive interference of Providence 
against his enemies, and in himself the instrument of 
divine vengeance. Leaving his crown and his country 
far behind he advanced on the wings of victory into the 
heart of Germany, which for centuries had seen no for- 
eign conqueror within its bosom. The warlike spirit of 
its inhabitants, the vigilance of its numerous princes, the 
artful confederation of its states, the number of its 
strong castles, its many and broad rivers had long re- 
strained the ambition of its neighbors; and frequently as 
its extensive frontier had been attacked, its interior had 
been free from invasion. Tlie empire had hitherto en- 
joyed the equivocal privilege of being its own enemy, 
though invincible from without. Even now it was 
merely the disunion of its members and the intolerance 
of religious zeal that paved the way for the Swedish 
invader. The bond of union between the states, which 
alone had rendered the empire invincible, was now dis- 
solved ; and Gustavus derived from Germany itself the 
power by which he subdued it. With as much courage 
as prudence he availed himself of all that the favorable 
moment afforded; and, equally at home in the cabinet 
and the field, he tore asunder the web of the artful 
policy with as much ease as he shattered walls with the 
thunder of his cannon. Uninterruptedly he pursued his 
conquests from one end of Germany to the other without 
breaking the line of posts M'hich commanded a secure 
retreat at any moment ; and whether on the banks of the 
Rhine, or at the mouth of the Lech, alike maintaining his 
communication with his hereditary dominions. 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. l^S 

The consternation of the Emperor and the League at 
Tilly's defeat at Leipzig was scarcely greater than the 
surprise and embarrassment of the allies of the King of 
Sweden at his unexpected success. It was beyond both 
their expectations and their wishes. Annihilated^ in a 
moment was that formidable army which, while it 
checked his progresJi and set bounds to his ambition, ren- 
dered him in some measure dependent on themselves. 
He now stood in the heart of Germany alone without a 
rival or without an adversary who was a match for him. 
Nothing could stop his progress or check his pretensions 
if the intoxication of success should tempt him to abuse 
his victory. If formerly tliey had dreaded the Em- 
peror's irresistible power, there was no less cause now to 
fear everything for the Empire from the violence of a 
foreign conqueror, and for the Catholic Church, from the 
religtous zeal of a Protestant king. The distrust and 
jealousy of some of the combined powers, which a 
stronger fear of the Emperor had for a time repressed, 
now Revived ; and scarcely had Gustavus Adolphus 
merited by his courage and success their confidence, 
when they began covertly to circumvent all his plans. 
Through a continual struggle with the arts of enemies, 
and the distrust of his own allies, must his victories 
henceforth be won ; yet resolution, penetration, and pru- 
dence made their way through all impediments. But 
while his success excited the jealousy of his more power- 
ful allies, France and Saxony, it gave courage to the 
weaker, and emboldened them openly to declare their 
sentiments and join his party. Those who could neither 
vie with Gustavus Adolphus in importance, nor suffer 
from his ambition, expected the more from the magna- 
nimity of their powerful ally, who enriched them with 
the spoils of their enemies and protected them against 
the oppression of their stronger neighbors. Hisstrength 
covered their weakness, and, inconsiderable in them- 
selves, they acquired weight and influence from their 
union with the Swedish hero. This was the case with 
most of the free cities, and particularly with the weaker 
Protestant states. It was these that introduced the king 
into the heart of Germany ; these covered his rear, sup 



180 THE THIRTY YEARS' WaR. 

plied his troops with necessaries, received them Into theii 
fortresses, while they exposed their own lives in his bat- 
tles. His prudent regard to their national pride, his 
popular deportment, some brilliant acts of justice, and 
his respect for the laws were so many ties by which he 
bound the German Protestants to his cause; while the 
crying atrocities of the Ira23erialists, the Spaniards, and 
the troops of Lorraine powerfully contributed to set his 
own conduct and that of his army in a favorable light. 

If Gustavus Adolphus owed his success chiefly to his 
own genius, at the same time, it must be owned, he was 
greatly favored by fortune and by circumstances. Two 
great advantages gave him a decided superiority over 
the enemy. While he removed the scene of war into the 
lands of the League, drew their youth as recruits, enriched 
himself with booty, and used the revenues of their fugi- 
tive princes as his own, he at once took from the enemy 
the means of effectual resistance, and maintained an 
expensive war with little cost to himself. And, more- 
over, while his opponents, the princes of the League, 
divided among themselves, and governed by different 
and often conflicting interests, acted without unanimity, 
and therefore without energy ; while their generals were 
deficient in authority, their troops in obedience, the opera- 
tions of their scattered armies without concert; while 
the general was separated from the lawgiver and the 
statesman ; these several functions were united in Gusta- 
vus Adolphus, the only source from which authority 
flowed, the sole object to which the eye of the warrior 
turned ; the soul of his party, the inventor as well as the 
executor of his plans. In him, therefore, the Protestants 
had a centre of unity and harmony, which was altogether 
wanting to their opponents. No wonder, then, if, favored 
by such advantages, at the head of such an army, with 
such a genius to direct it, and guided by such political 
prudence, Gustavus Adolphus was irresistible. 

With a sword in one hand and mercy in the other, he 
traversed Germany as a conqueror, a lawgiA'er, and a 
judge in as short a time almost as the tourist of pleasure. 
The keys of towns and fortresses were delivered to him 
as if to the native sovereign. No fortress was inacces^ 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 181 

sible ; no river checked his victorious career. He con- 
quered by the very terror of his name. The Swedish 
standards were planted along the whole stream of the 
Maine; the Lower Palatinate was free, the troops of 
Spain and Lorraine had fled across the Rhine and the 
Moselle. The Swedes and Hessians poured like a torrent 
into the territories of Mentz, of Wurtzburg, and Baui- 
berg, and three fugitive bishops, at a distance from their 
sees, suffered dearly for their unfortunate attachment to 
the Emperor. It was now the turn for Maximilian, the 
leader of the League, to feel in his own dominions the 
miseries he had inflicted upon others. Neither the ter- 
rible fate of his allies, nor the peaceful overtures of Gus- 
tavus, who, in the midst of conquest, ever held out the 
hand of friendship, could conquer the obstinacy of this 
prince. The torrent of war now poured into Bavaria. 
Like the banks of the Rhine, those of the Lecke and the 
Donau were crowded with Swedish troops. Creeping 
into his fortresses, the defeated Elector abandoned to 
the ravages of the foe his dominions, hitherto unscathed 
by war, and on which the bigoted violence of the Bavarians 
seemed to invite retaliation. Munich itself opened its 
gates to the invincible monarch, and the fugitive Palatine, 
Frederick V., in the forsaken residence of his rival, con- 
soled himself for a time for the loss of his dominions. 

While Gustavus Adolphus was extending his conquests 
in the south, his generals and allies were gaining similar 
triumphs in the other provinces. Lower Saxony shook off 
the yoke of Austria, the enemy abandoned Mecklenburg, 
and the imperial garrisons retired from the banks of tlie 
Weser and the Elbe. In Westphalia and the Upper 
Rhine William, Landgrave of Hesse, rendered himself 
formidable; the Duke of Weimar in Thuringia, and the 
French in the Electorate of Treves ; while to the eastward 
the whole kingdom of Bohemia was conquered by the 
Saxons. The Turks were preparing to attack Hungary, 
and in the heart of Austria a dangerous insurrection was 
threatened. In vain did the Emperor look around to the 
courts of Europe for support ; in vain did he simimon the 
Spaniards to his assistance, for the bravery of the Flem- 
ings afforded them ample employment beyond the Rhine; 



182 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

in vain did lie call upon the Roman court and the whold 
church to come to his rescue. The offended Pope sported, 
in pompous processions and idle anathemas, with the em- 
barrassments of Ferdinand, and instead of the desired 
subsidy he was shown the devastation of Mantua. 

On all sides of his extensive monarchy hostile arms 
surrounded him. With the states of the League, now 
overrun by the enemy, those ramparts were thrown down 
behind which Austria had so long defended herself, and 
the embers of war were now smouldering upon her 
unguarded frontiers. His most zealous allies were dis- 
armed ; Maximilian of Bavaria, his firmest support, was 
scarce able to defend himself. His armies, weakened by 
desertion and repeated defeat, and dispirited by continued 
misfortunes, had unlearnt, under beaten generals, that 
warlike impetuosity which as it is the consequence, so it 
is the guarantee of success. The danger was extreme, 
and extraordinary means alone could raise the imperial 
power from the degradation into which it was fallen. 

The most urgent want was that of a general ; and the 
only one from whom he could hope for the revival of his 
former splendor had been removed from his command 
by an envious cabal. So low had the Emperor now fallen 
that he was forced to make the most humiliating propo- 
sals to his injured subject and servant, and meanly to 
press upon the imperious Duke of Friedland the accept- 
ance of the powers which no less meanly had been taken 
from him. A new spirit began from this moment to 
animate the expiring body of Austria ; and a sudden 
cl)ange in the aspect of affairs bespoke the firm hand 
which guided them. To the absolute King of Sweden 
a general equally absolute was now opposed ; and one 
victorious hero was confronted with another. Both 
armies were again to engage in the doubtful struggle; 
and the prize of victory, already almost secured in the 
hands of Gustavus Adolphus, was to be the object of 
another and a severer trial. The storm of war gathered 
around Nuremberg; before its walls the hostile armies 
encamped ; gazing on each other with dread and respect, 
longing for, and yet shrinking from, the moment that 
was to close them together in the shock of battle. The 



THfi THIRTY YEARS' WAR. l83 

eyes of Europe turned to the scene in curiosity and 
alarm, while Nuremberg, in dismay, expected soon to 
lend its name to a more decisive battle than that of Leip- 
zig. Suddenly the clouds broke and the storm rolled 
away from Franconia, to burst upon the plains of Saxony, 
Near Lutzen fell the thunder that had menaced Nurem= 
berg ; the victory, half lost, was purchased by the death 
of the king. Fortune, which had never deserted hirx> in 
his lifetime, favored the King of Sweden even in his 
death, with the rare privilege of falling in the fulness of 
his glory and an untarnished fame. By a timely death 
his protecting genius rescued him from the inevitable 
fate of man — that of forgetting moderation in the intox- 
ication of success, and justice in the plenitude of power. 
It may be doubted whether, had he lived longer, he would 
still have deserved the tears which Germany shed over 
his grave, or maintained his title to the admiration with 
which posterity regards him, as the first and only just 
conqueror that the world has produced. The untimely 
fall of their great leader seemed to threaten the ruin of 
his party ; but to the Power which rules the world, no 
loss of a single man is irreparable. As the helm of war 
dropped from the hand of the falling hei'O, it was seized 
by two great statesmen, Oxenstiern and Richelieu. Des- 
tiny still pursued its relentless course, and for full sixteen 
years longer the flames of war blazed over the ashes of 
the long-forgotten king and soldier. 

I may now be permitted to take a cursory retrospect 
of Gustavus Adolphus in his victorious career, glance at 
the scene in which he alone Avas the great actor, and 
then, when Austria becomes reduced to extremity by 
the successes of the Swedes, and by a series of disasters 
is driven to the most humiliating and desperate expedi- 
ents, to return to the history of the Emperor. 

As soon as the plan of operations had been concerted 
at Halle between the King of Sweden and the Elector 
of Saxony, as soon as the alliance had been concluded 
with the neighboring princes of Weimar and Anhalt, and 
preparations made for the recovery of the bishopric of 
Magdeburg, the king began his march into the empire. 
He had here no despicable foe to contend with. Within 



184 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

the empire the Emperor was still powerful ; throughout 
Franconia, Swabia, and the Palatinate imperial garrisons 
were posted with whom the possession of every place of 
importance must be disputed sword in hand. On the 
Rhine he was opposed by the Spaniards, who had over- 
run the territory of the banished Elector Palatine, seized 
all its strong places, and would everywhere dispute with 
him the passage over that river. On his rear was Tilly, 
who was fast recruiting his force, and would soon be 
joined by the auxiliaries from Lorraine. Every Papist 
presented an inveterate foe, while his connection with 
France did not leave him at liberty to act with freedom 
against the Roman Catholics. Gustavus had foreseen 
all these obstacles, but at the same time the means by 
which they were to be overcome. The strength of the 
Imperialists was broken and divided among different 
garrisons, while he would bring against them one by one 
his whole united force. If he was to be opj^osed by the 
fanaticism of the Roman Catholics, and the awe in which 
the lesser states regarded the Emperor's power, he might 
depend on the active support of the Protestants and 
their hatred to Austrian oppression. The ravages of the 
Imperialist and Spanish troops also powerfully aided 
him in these quarters ; where the ill-treated husbandman 
and citizen sighed alike for a deliverer, and where the 
mere change of yoke seemed to promise a relief. Emissa- 
ries were despatched to gain over to the Swedish side 
the principal free cities, particularly Nuremburg and 
Frankfort. The first that lay in the king's march, and 
which he could not leave unoccupied in his rear, was 
Erfurt. Here the Protestant party among the citizens 
opened to him, without a bloAv, the gates of the town 
and the citadel. From the inhabitants of this, as of 
every important place which afterwards submitted, he 
exacted an oath of allegiance, while he secured its pos- 
session by a sufficient garrison. To his ally, Duke Wil- 
liam of Weimar, he entrusted the command of an army 
to be raised in Thuringia. He also left his queen in 
Erfurt, and promised to increase its privileges. The 
Swedish army now crossed the Thuringian forest in two 
columns, by Gotha and Arnstadt, and, having delivered 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 185 

in its march the county of Henneberg from the Imperial- 
ists, formed a junction on the third day near Koenigs- 
hofen, on the frontiers of Franconia. 

Francis, Bisliop of Wurtzburg, the bitter enemy of 
the Protestants, and the most zealous member of the 
League, was the first to feel the indignation of Gustavus 
Idolphus. A few threats gained for the Swedes posses-^ 
sion of his fortress of Koenigshofen, and with it the key 
of the whole province. At the news of this rapid con- 
quest dismay seized all the Roman Catholic towns of the 
circle. The Bishops of Wurtzburg and Bamberg trembled 
in their castles ; they already saw their sees tottering, 
their churches profaned, and their religion degraded. 
The malice of his enemies had circulated the most fright- 
ful representations of the jDersecuting spirit and the 
mode of warfare pursued by the Swedish king and his 
soldiers, which neither the repeated assurances of the 
king nor the most splendid examples of humxanity and 
toleration ever entirely effaced. Many feared to suffer at 
the hands of another what in similar circumstances they 
were conscious of inflicting themselves. Many of the 
richest Roman Catholics hastened to secure by flight 
their property, their religion, and their persons from the 
sanguinary fanaticism of the Swedes. The bishop him- 
self set the example. In the midst of the alarm which 
his bigoted zeal had caused he abandoned his dominions 
and fled to Paris to excite, if possible, the French minis- 
try against the common enemy of religion. 

The further progress of Gustavus Adolphus in the 
ecclesiastical territories agreed with this brilliant com- 
mencement. Schweinfurt, and soon after Wurtzburg, 
abandoned by their Imperial garrisons, surrendered; but 
Marienberg he was obliged to carry by storm. In this 
place, which was believed to be impregnable, the enemy 
had collected a large store of provisions and ammunition, 
all of which fell into the hands of the Swedes. The king 
found a valuable prize in the library of the Jesuits, 
which he sent to IJpsal, while his soldiers found a still 
more agreeable one in the prelate's well-filled cellars ; 
his treasures the bishop had in good time removed. 
The whole bishopric followed the example of the capital 



186 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

and submitted to the Swedes. The king compelled aH 
the bishop's subjects to swear allegiance to himself, and 
in the absence of the lawful sovereign appointed a re-, 
gency, one-half of whose members were Protestants. In 
every Roman Catholic town which Gustavus took he 
opened the churches to the Protestant peoi^le, but with- 
out retaliating on the PajDists the cruelties which they 
liad 23ractised on the former. On such only as sword in 
hand refused to submit were the fearful rights of war 
enforced ; and for the occasional acts of violence com- 
mitted by a few of the more lawless soldiers, in the blind 
rage of their first attack, their humane leader is not justly 
responsible. Those who Avere peaceably disposed, or 
defenceless, were treated with mildness. It was a sacred 
principle with Gustavus to spare the blood of his enemies 
as well as that of his own troops. 

On the first news of the Swedish irruption the Bishop 
of Wurtzburg, without regarding the treaty which he 
had entered into with the King of Sweden, had earnestly 
pressed the general of the League to hasten to the assist- 
ance of the bishopric. That defected commander had, 
in the meantime, collected on the Weser the shattered 
remnant of his army, reinforced himself from the garri- 
sons of Lower Saxony, and effected a junction in Hesse 
with Altringer and Fugger, who commanded under him. 
Again at the head of a considerable force Tilly burned 
with impatience to wipe out the stain of his first defeat 
by a splendid victory. From his camp at Fulda, whither 
he had marched with his army, he earnestly requested 
permission from the Duke of Bavaria to give battle 
to Gustavus Adolphus. But, in the event of Tilly's 
defeat, the League had no second army to fall back 
upon, and Maximilian was too cautious to risk again the 
fate of his party on a single battle. With tears in his 
eyes Tilly read the commands of his superior which com- 
pelled him to inactivity. Thus his march to Franconia 
was delayed, and Gustavus Adolphus gained time to over- 
run the whole bishopric. It was in vain that Tilly, rein- 
forced at Aschaffenburg by a body of twelve thousand 
men from Lorraine, marched with an overwhelming force 
to the relief of Wurtzburg. The town and citadel were 



THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 187 

already in the hands of the Swedes, and Maximilian of 
Bavaria was generally blamed (and not without cause, 
perhaps) for having by his scruples occasioned the loss of 
the bishopric. Commanded to avoid a battle, Tilly con- 
tented himself with checking the farther advance of the 
Bnemy ; but he could save only a few of the towns from 
the impetuosity of the Swedes. Baffled in an attempt to 
reinforce the weak garrison of Hanau, which it was 
hic^hly important for the Swedes to gain, he crossed the 
Maine near Seligenstadt and took the direction of the 
Bergestrasse, to protect the Palatinate from the con- 
queror. 

Tilly, however, was not the sole enemy whom Gustayus 
Adolphus met in Franconia and drove before him. 
Charles, Duke of Lorraine, celebrated in the annals ot 
the time for his unsteadiness of character, his vam pro- 
jects, and his misfortunes, ventured to raise a weak arm 
against the Sweetish hero hi the hope of obtaining from 
the Emperor the electoral dignity. Deaf to the sugges- 
tions of a rational policy, he Hstened only to the dictates 
of heated ambition ; by supporting the Emperor he ex- 
asperated France, his formidable neighbor, and m pursuit 
of a visionary phantom in another country left unde- 
fended his own dominions, which were instantly overrun 
by a French army. Austria willingly conceded to him, 
as well as to the other princes of the League, the honor 
of being ruined in her cause. Litoxicated with vain hopes 
this prince collected a force of seventeen thousand men 
which he proposed to lead in person against the Swedes. It 
these troops were deficient in discipline and courage they 
were at least attractive by the splendor of their accoutre- 
ments ; and however sparing they were of their prowess 
against the foe, they were liberal enough with it against 
the defenceless citizens and peasantry whom they were 
summoned to defend. Against the bravery and the 
formidable discipline of the Swedes this splendidly 
attired army, however, made no long stand, y" ^^® 
first advance of the Swedish cavalry a panic seized them, 
and they were driven without difficulty from their can- 
tonments in Wurtzbuvg; the defeat of a few regiments 
occasioned a general rout, and the scattered remnant 



188 THE THIRTY YEARS' AVAR. 

sought a covert from the Swedish valor in the towns 
beyond the Rhine. Loaded with shame and ridicule the 
duke hurried home by Strasburg, too fortunate in 
escaping, by a submissive written apology, the indigna- 
tion of his conqueror, who had first beaten him out of 
the field, and then called ujjon him to account for his 
hostilities. It is related upon this occasion that in a vil- 
lage on the Rhine a peasant struck the horse of the duke 
as he rode past, exclaiming, " Haste, sir ; you must go 
quicker to escape the great King of Sweden," 

The example of his neighbors' misfortunes had taught 
the Bishop of Bamberg prudence. To avert the plunder- 
ing of his territories he made offers of peace, though 
these were intended only to delay the king's course till 
the arrival of assistance. Gustavus Adolphus, too hon- 
orable himself to suspect dishonesty in another, readily 
accepted the bishop's proposals and named the conditions 
on which he was willing to save his territories from hos- 
tile treatment. He was the more inclined to peace, as he 
had no time to lose in the conquest of Bamberg, and his 
other designs called him to the Rhine. The rapidity 
with which he followed up these plans cost him the loss 
of those pecuniary supplies which, by a longer residence 
in Franconia, he might easily have extorted from the 
weak and terrified bishop. This artful prelate broke off 
the negotiation the instant the storm of war passed away 
from his own territories. No sooner had Gustavus 
marched onwards than he threw himself under the pro- 
tection of Tilly, and received the troops of the Emperor 
into the very towns and fortresses wliich shortly before 
he had shown himself ready to open to the Swedes. By 
this stratagem, however, he only delayed for a brief 
interval the ruin of his bishopric. A Swedish general 
who had been left in Franconia undertook to punish the 
perfidy of the bishop, and the ecclesiastical territoi*y 
became the seat of war and was ravaged alike by friends 
and foes. 

The formidable presence of the Imperialists had hith- 
erto been a check upon the Franconian States ; but their 
retreat, and the humane conduct of the Swedish king, 
emboldened the nobility and other inhabitants of this 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 189 

circle to declare in his favor. Nuremberg joyfully com- 
mitted itself to his protection, and the Franconian nobles 
were won to his cause by flattering proclamations in 
which he condescended to apologize for his hostile ap- 
pearance in their dominions. The fertility of Franconia, 
and the rigorous honesty of the Swedish soldiers in their 
dealiiags with the inhabitants, brought abundance to the 
camp of the king. The high esteem which the nobility 
of the circle felt for Gustavus, the respect and admira- 
tion with which they regarded his brilliant exploits, the 
promises of rich booty which the service of this mon- 
arch held out, greatly facilitated the recruiting of his 
troops ; a step which "was made necessary by detaching 
so many garrisons from the main body. At the sound 
of his drums recruits flocked to his standard from all 
quarters. 

The king had scarcely spent more time in conquering 
Franconia than he would have required to cross it. He 
now left behind him Gustavus Horn, one of his best 
generals, with a force of eight thousand men, to complete 
and retain his conquest. He himself with his main army, 
reinforced by the late recruits, hastened towards the 
Rhine in order to secure this frontier of the empire from 
the Spaniards, to disarm the ecclesiastical electors, and 
to obtain from their fertile territories new resources for 
the prosecution of the war. Following the course of the 
Maine, he subjected in the course of his march Seligen- 
stadt, Aschaffenburg, Steinheim, the whole territory on 
both sides of the river. The imperial garrisons seldom 
awaited his approach, and never attempted resistance. 
In the meanwhile one of his colonels had been fortunate 
enough to take by suprise the town and citadel of Hanau, 
for whose preservation Tilly had shown such anxietyo 
Eager to be free of the oppressive burden of the Impe- 
rialists, the Count of Hanau gladly piaced himself under 
the milder yoke of the King of Sweden. 

Gustavus Adolphus now turned his whole attention to 
Frankfort, for it was his constant maxim to cover his 
rear by the friendship and possession of the more impor- 
tant towns. Frankfort was among the free cities which, 
even from Saxony, he had endeavored to prepare for his 



190 THE THIETY YEAKS' WAR. 

reception ; and he now called upon it, by a summons 
from Offenbach, to allow him a free passage, and to 
admit a Swedish garrison. Willingly would this city 
have dispensed with the necessity of choosing between 
the King of Sweden and the Emperor, for, whatever 
party they might embrace, the inhabitants had a like rea- 
son to fear for their privileges and trade. The Emperor's 
vengeance would certainly fall heavily upon them if they 
were in a hurry to submit to the King of Sweden, and 
afterwards he should prove unable to protect his adher- 
ents in Germany. But still more ruinous for them would 
be the displeasure of an irresistible conqueror who, with 
a formidable army, was already before their gates, and 
who might punish their opposition by the ruin of their 
commerce and prosperity. In vain did their deputies 
plead the danger which menaced their fairs, their privi- 
leges, perhaps their constitution itself, if by espousing 
the party of the Swedes they were to incur the Emperor's 
displeasure. Gustavus Adolphus expressed to them his 
astonishment that when the liberties of Germany and the 
Protestant religion were at stake the citizens of Frank- 
fort should talk of their annual fairs, and postpone for 
temporal interests the great cause of their country and 
their conscience. He had, he continued in a menacing 
tone, found the keys of every town and fortress from the 
Isle of Rugen to the Maine, and knew also where to find 
a key to Frankfort. The safety of Germany and the 
freedom of the Protestant Church were, he assured them, 
the sole objects of his invasion; conscious of the justice 
of his cause, he was determined not to allow any obstacle 
to imjDcde his progress. " The inhabitants of Frankfort, 
he was well aware, wished to stretch out only a finger to 
him, but he must have the whole hand in order to have 
something to grasp." At the head of the army he closely 
followed the deputies as they carried back his answer, 
and in order of battle awaited near Saxenhausen the 
decision of the council. 

If Frankfort hesitated to submit to the Swedes it was 
solely fi-om fear of the Emperor; their own inclinations 
did not allow them a moment to doubt between the 
oppressor of Germany and its protector. The menacing 



THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 



191 



preparations amidst which Gustavus Adolphus now com- 
pelled them to decide would lessen the guilt of their 
revolt in the eyes of the Emperor, and by an appearance 
of compulsion justify the step which they willingly took. 
The gates were therefore opened to the King of Sweden, 
who marched his army through this imperial town in 
magnificent procession and in admirable order. A gar- 
rison of six hundred men was left in Saxenhausen, while 
the king himself advanced the same evening with the 
rest of his army against the town of Hochst, in Mentz, 
which surrendered to him before night. 

While Gustavus was thus extending his conquests along 
the Maine, fortune crowned also the efforts of his gen- 
erals and allies in the North of Germany. Rostock 
Wismar, and Doemitz, the only strong places in the 
Duchy of Mecklenburg which still sighed under the yoke 
of the Imperialists, were recovered by their legitimate 
sovereign, the Duke John Albert, under the Swedish 
General Achatius Tott. In vain did the Imperial general, 
Wolf Count von Mansfeld, endeavor to recover from the 
Swedes the territories of Halberstadt, of which they had 
taken possession immediately upon the victory of Leip- 
zig; he was even compelled to leave Magdeburg itseK in 
their hands. The Swedish general. Banner, who with 
eight thousand men remained upon the Elbe, closely 
blockaded that city, and had defeated several imperial 
regiments which had been sent to its relief. _ Count 
Mansfeld defended it in person with great resolution, but 
his garrison being too weak to oppose for any length of 
time the numerous force of the besiegers, he was already 
about to surrender on conditions when Pappenheim ad- 
vanced to his assistance and gave employment elsewhere 
to the Swedish arms. Magdeburg, however, or rather 
the wretched huts that peeped out miserably from among 
the ruins of that once great town, was afterwards volun- 
tarily abandoned by the Imperialists and immediately 
taken possession of by the Swedes. 

Even Lower Saxony, encouraged by the progress of 
the king, ventured to raise its head from the disasters of 
the unfortunate Danish war. They held a congress at 
Hamburg and resolved upon raising three regiments, 



192 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

which they hoped would be sufficient to free them 
from the oppressive garrisons of the Imjjerialists. The 
Bishop of Bremen, a relation of Gustavus Adolphus, was 
not content even with this, but assembled troojDS of his 
own, and terrified the unfortunate monks and priests of 
the neighborhood, but was quickly compelled by the 
imjDerial general. Count Gronsfeld, to lay down his arms. 
Even George, Duke of Lunenburg, formerly a colonel in 
the Emperor's service, embraced the party of Gustavus, 
for whom he raised several regiments, and, by occupying 
the attention of the Imperialists in Lower Saxony, 
materially assisted him. 

But more important service was rendered to the king 
by the Landgrave William of Hesse Cassel, whose vic- 
torious arms struck with terror the greater part of 
Westphalia and Lower Saxony, the bishopric of Fulda, 
and even the Electorate of Cologne. It has been already 
stated that immediately after the conclusion of the alli- 
ance between the Landgrave and Gustavus Adolphus at 
Werben, two imperial generals, Fugger and Altringer, 
were ordered by Tilly to march into Hesse, to punish the 
Landgrave for his revolt from the Emperor. But this 
prince had as firmly withstood the arms of his enemies 
as his subjects had the proclamations of Tilly inciting 
them to rebellion, and the battle of Leipzig presently 
relieved him of their presence. He availed himself of 
their absence with courage and resolution; in a short 
time, Vach, Miinden, and Hoexter surrendered to him, 
while his rapid advance alarmed the bishoprics of Fulda, 
Paderborn, and the ecclesiastical territories which bor- 
dered on Hesse. The terrified states hastened by a 
speedy submission to set limits to his progress, and by 
considerable contributions to purchase exemption from 
plunder. After these successful enterprises, the Land- 
grave united his victoi'ious army Math that of Gustavus 
Adolphus, and concerted with him at Frankfort their 
future plan of operations. 

In this city a number of princes and ambassadors were 
assembled to congratulate Gustavus on his success, and 
either to conciliate liis favor or to ajipease his indignation. 
Among them was the fugitive King of Bohemia, Palatine 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 193 

Frederick V., who had hastened from Holland to throw 
himself into the arms of his avenger and protector. Gus- 
tavus gave him the unprofitable honor of greeting him as 
a crowned head, and endeavored by a respectful sympathy 
to soften his sense of his misfortunes. But great as the 
advantages were which Frederick had promised himself 
from the power and good fortune of his protector, and 
high as were the expectations he had built on his justice 
and magnanimity, the chance of this unfortunate prince's 
reinstatement in his kingdom was as distant as ever. The 
inactivity and contradictory politics of the English court 
had abated the zeal of Gustavus Adolphus, and an irrita- 
bility, which he could not always repress, made him on 
this occasion forget the glorious vocation of protector of 
the oppressed, in which on his invasion of Germany he 
had so loudly announced himself. 

The terrors of the king's irresistible strength, and the 
near prospect of his vengeance, had also compelled 
George, Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, to a timely 
submission. His connection with the Emperor, and his 
indifference to the Protestant cause, were no secret to the 
king, but he was satisfied with laughing at so impotent 
an enemy. As the Landgrave knew his own strength and 
the political situation of Germany so little, as to offer 
himself as mediator between the contending parties, Gus- 
tavus used jestingly to call him the peacemaker. He was 
frequently heard to say, when at play he was winning 
from the Landgrave, "that the money afforded double 
satisfaction, as it was Imperial coin." To his affinity witli 
the Elector of Saxony, whom Gustavus had cause to treat 
with forbearance, the Landgrave was indebted for the 
favorable terras he obtained from the king, who contented 
himself with the surrender of his fortress of Russelheim, 
and his promise of observing a strict neutrality during 
the war. The Counts of Westerwald and Wetterau also 
visited the King in Frankfort, to offer him their assistance 
against the Spaniards, and so conclude an alliance, which 
was afterwards of great service to him. The town of 
Frankfort itself had reason to rejoice at the presence of this 
monarch, who took their commerce under his protection, 
and by the most effectual measures restored the fairs, which 
had been greatly interrupted b^the ./ar. 



194 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The Swedish army was now reinforced by ten thousand 
Hessians, which the Landgrave of Casse commanded. 
Gustavus Adolphus had ah-eady invested Konigstein; 
Kostheim and Florsheim surrendered after a short siege ; 
he was in command of the Maine ; and transports were 
preparing with all speed at Hoechst to carry his troops 
across the Rhine. These preparations filled the Elector 
of Mentz, Anselm Casimir, with consternation ; and he no 
longer doubted but that the storm of war would next fall 
upon him. As a partisan of the Emperor, and one of the 
most active members of the League, he could expect no 
better treatment than his confederates, the Bishops of 
Wurtzburg and Bamberg, had already experienced. The 
situation of his territories upon the Rhine made it neces- 
sary for the enemy to secure them, while the fertility 
afforded an irresistible temptation to a necessitous army. 
Miscalculating his own strength and that of his adversa- 
ries, the Elector flattered himself that he was able to 
repel- force by force, and weary out the valor of the 
Swedes by the strength of his fortresses. He ordered 
the fortifications of his capital to be repaired with all 
diligence, provided it with every necessary for sustaining 
a long siege, and received into the town a garrison of 
two thousand Spaniards, under Don Philip de Sylva. 
To prevent the approach of the Swedish transports, he 
endeavored to close the mouth of the Maine by driving 
piles, and sinking large heaps of stones and vessels. He 
himself, however, accompanied by the Bishop of Worms, 
and carrying with him his most precious effects, took 
refuge in Cologne, and abandoned his capital and terri- 
tories to the rapacity of a tyrannical garrison. But these 
preparations, which bespoke less of true courage than of 
weak and overweening confidence, did not prevent the 
Swedes from marching against Mentz, and making serious 
preparations for an attack upon the city. While one 
body of their troops poured into the Rheingau, routed the 
Spaniards who remained there, and levied contributions 
on the inhabitants, another laid the Roman Catholic 
towns in Westerwald and Wetterau under similar con- 
Iributions. The main army had encamped at Cassel, 
opposite Mentz; and Bernhard, Duke of Weimar, made 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 195 

himself master of the Mausethurm and the castle of 
Ehrenfels, on the other side of the Rhine. Gustavus was 
now actively preparing to cross the river, and to blockade 
the town on the land side, when the movements of Tilly 
in Franconia suddenly called him from the siege, and 
obtained for the Elector a short repose. 

The danger of Nuremburg, which, during the absence 
of Gustavus Adolphus on the Rhine, Tilly had made a 
show of besieging, and, in the event of resistance, threat- 
ened with the cruel fate of Magdeburg, occasioned the 
king suddenly to retire from before Mentz. Lest he 
should expose himself a second time to the reproaches of 
Germany, and the disgrace of abandoning a confederate 
city to a ferocious enemy, he hastened to its relief by 
forced marches. On his arrival at Frankfort, however, 
he heard of its spirited resistance, and of the retreat of 
Tilly, and lost not a moment in prosecuting his designs 
ao-ainst Mentz. Failing in an attempt to cross the Rhine 
at Cassel, under the cannon of the besieged, he directed 
his march towards the Bergstrasse, with a view of ap- 
proaching the town from an opposite quarter. Here he 
quickly made himself master of all the places of impor- 
tance, and at Stockstadt, between Gernsheim and Oppen- 
heim, appeared a second time upon the banks of the 
Rhine. The whole of the Bergstrasse was abandoned by 
the Spaniards, who endeavored obstinately to defend the 
other bank of the river. For this purpose they had burned 
or sunk all the vessels in the neighborhood, and arranged 
a formidable force on the banks in case the king should 
attempt the passage at that place. 

On this occasion, the king's impetuosity exposed him 
to great danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. 
In order to reconnoitre the opposite bank, he crossed the 
river in a small boat ; he had scarcely landed when he 
was attacked by a party of Spanish horse, from whose 
hands he only saved himself by a precipitate retreat. 
Having at last, with the assistance of the neighboring 
fishermen, succeeded in procuring a few transports, he 
despatched two of them across the river, bearing Count 
Brahe and three hundred Swedes. Scarcely had this 
oflScer time to entrench himself on the opposite bank, 



196 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

when he was attacked by fourteen sqviadrons of Spanish 
dragoons and cuirassiers. Superior as the enemy was in 
number, Count Brahe, witli his small force, bravely de- 
fended himself, and gained time for the king to support 
him with fresh troops. The Spaniards at last retired with 
the loss of six hundred men, some taking refuge in 
Oppenheim, and others in Mentz. A lion of marble on a 
high pillar, holding a naked sword in his paw, and a hel- 
met on his head, was erected seventy years after the 
event, to point out to the traveller the spot where the 
immortal monarch crossed the great river of Germany. 

Gustavus Adolphus now conveyed his artillery and the 
greater part of his troops over the river, and laid siege to 
Oppenheim, which, after a brave resistance, w^as, on the 
8th December, 1631, carried by storm. Five hundred 
Spaniards, who had so courageously defended the place, 
fell indiscriminately a sacrifice to the fury of the Swedes. 
The crossing of the Rhine by Gustavus st>-uck terror into 
the Spaniards and Lorrainers, who had thought them- 
selves protected by the river from the vengeance of the 
Swedes. Rapid flight was now their only security ; every 
place incapable of an effectual defence was immediately 
abandoned. After a long train of outrages on tlie de- 
fenceless citizens, the troops of Lorraine evacuated 
Worms, which, before their departure, they treated with 
wanton cruelty. The Spaniards hastened to shut them- 
selves up in Frankenthal, where they hoped to defy the 
victorious arms of Gustavus Adolphus. 

The king lost no time in prosecuting his designs against 
Mentz, into which the flower of the Spanish troops had 
thrown themselves. While he advanced on the left 
bank of the Rhine, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel moved 
forward on the other, reducing several strong places on 
his march. The besieged Spaniards, though hemmed in 
on both sides, displayed at first a bold determination, 
and threw, for several days, a shower of bombs into the 
Swedish camp, which cost the king many of his bravest 
soldiers. But, notwithstanding, the Swedes continually 
gained ground, and had at last advanced so close to tlie 
ditch that they prepared seriously for storming the place. 
The courage of the besieged now began to droop. They 



THE THIKTY YEARS* WAR. 197 

trembled before the furious impetuosity of the Swedish 
soldiers, of which Marienberg, in Wurtzburg, had afforded 
so fearful an examj)le. The same dreadful fate awaited 
Mentz if taken by storm ; and the enemy might even be 
easily tempted to revenge the carnage of Magdeburg on 
this rich and magnificent residence of a Roman Catholic 
prince. To save the town, rather than their own lives, 
the Spanish garrison capitulated on the fourth day, and 
obtained from the magnanimity of Gustavus a safe con- 
duct to Luxembourg ; the greater part of them, however, 
following the example of many others, enlisted in the 
service of Sweden. 

On the 13th December, 1631, the king made his entry 
into the conquered town, and fixed his quarters in the 
palace of the Elector. Eighty pieces of cannon fell into 
his hands, and the citizens were obliged to redeem their 
property from pillage by a payment of eighty thousand 
florins. The benefits of this redemption did not extend 
to the Jews and the clergy, who were obliged to make 
large and separate contributions for themselves. The 
library of the Elector was seized by the king as his share, 
and presented by him to his chancellor, Oxenstiern, who 
intended it for the Academy of Westerrah, but the 
vessel in which it was shipped to Sweden foundered at 
sea. 

After the loss of Mentz misfortune still pursued the 
Spaniards on the Rhine. Shortly before the capture of 
that city, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel had taken 
Falkenstein and Reifenberg, and the fortress of Koning- 
stein surrendered to the Hessians. The Rhinegrave, 
Otto Louis, one of the king's generals, defeated nine 
Spanish squadrons who were on their march for Franken- 
thal, and made himself master of the most important 
towns upon the Rhine, from Boppart to Bacharach. 
After the capture of the fortress of Braunfels, which was 
effected by the Count of Wetterau, with the co-operation 
of the Swedes, the Spaniards quickly lost every place in 
"Wetterau, while in the Palatinate they retained few 
places besides Frankenthal. Landau and Kronweisenberg 
openly declared for the Swedes ; Spires offered troops for 
the king's service ; Manheim was gamed through the 



198 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAS. 

prudence of the Duke Bernard of "Weimar, and the 
negligence of its governor, who, for this misconduct, was 
tried before the council of war, at Heidelbei-g, and 
beheaded. 

The king had protracted the campaign into the depth 
of winter, and the severity of the season was perhaps one 
cause of the advantage his soldiers gained over those of 
the enemy. But the exhausted troops now stood in need 
of the rej^ose of winter quarters, which, after the surrender 
of Mentz, Gustavus assigned to them, in its neighborhood. 
He himself employed the interval of inactivity in the 
field, which the season of the year enjoined, in arranging, 
with his chancellor, the affairs of his cabinet, in treating 
for a neutrality with some of his enemies, and adjusting 
some political disputes which had sprung up with a neigh- 
boring ally. He chose the city of Mentz for his winter 
quarters, and the settlement of these state affairs, and 
showed a greater partiality for this town than seemed 
consistent with the interests of the German princes, or 
the shortness of his visit to the Emj^ire. Not content 
with strongly fortifying it, he erected at the opposite 
angle, which the Maine forms with the Rhine, a new 
citadal, which was named Gustavusburg from its founder, 
but which is better known under the title of Pfaffenraub 
or Pfaffenzwang.* 

While Gustavus Adolphus made himself master of the 
Rhine, and threatened the three neighboring electorates 
with his victorious arms, his vigilant enemies in Paris 
and St. Germain's made use of every artifice to deprive 
him of the support of France, and, if jDossible, to involve 
him in a war with that power. By his sudden and 
equivocal march to the Rhine he had surprised his 
friends, and furnished his enemies with the means of ex- 
citing a distrust of his intentions. After the conquest of 
Wurtzburg, and of the greater part of Franconia, the 
road into Bavaria and Austria lay open to him through 
Bamberg and the Upper Palatinate ; and the expectation 
was as general as it was natural, that he would not delay 
lo attack the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria in the 

* Priests' plunder ; alluding to the means by which the expense of its 
erection had been defrayed. 



THE THIETY YEARS' WAR. 199 

very centre of their power, and, by the reduction of his 
two principal enemies, bring the war immediately to an 
end. But to the surprise of both parties, Gustavus left 
the path which general expectation had thus marked out 
for him ; and instead of advancing to the right, turned to 
the left, to make the less important and more innocent 
princes of the Khine feel his power, while he gave time 
to his more formidable opponents to recruit their strength. 
Nothing but the paramount design of reinstating the un- 
fortunate Palatine, Frederick V., in the possession of his 
territories, by the expulsion of the Spaniards, could seem 
to account for this strange step ; and the belief that Gus- 
tavus was about to effect that restoration silenced for a 
while the suspicions of his friends and the calumnies of 
his enemies. But the Lower Palatinate was now almost 
entirely cleared of the enemy; and yet Gustavus con- 
tinued to form new schemes of conquest on the Rhine, 
and to withhold the reconquered country from the Pala- 
tine, its rightful owner. In vain did the English ambas- 
sador remind him of what justice demanded, and what 
his own solemn engagement made a duty of honor ; Gus- 
tavus replied to these demands with bitter complaints 
of the inactivity of the English court, and prepared to 
carry his victorious standard into Alsace, and even into 
Lorraine. 

A distrust of the Swedish monarch was now loud and 
open, while the malice of his enemies busily circulated the 
most injurious reports as to his intentions. Richelieu, 
the minister of Louis XIIL, had long witnessed with 
anxiety the king's progress towards the French frontier, 
and the suspicious temper of Louis rendered him but too 
accessible to the evil surmises which the occasion gave rise 
to. France was at this time involved in a civil war with 
her Protestant subjects, and the fear was not altogether 
groundless that the approach of a victorious monarch of 
their party might revive their drooping spirit, and en- 
courage them to a more desperate resistance. This might 
be the case, even if Gustavus Adolphus was far from 
showing a disposition to encourage them, or to act un- 
faithfidly towards his ally, the King of France. But the 
vindictive Bishop of Wurtzburg, who was anxious to 



200 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

avenge the loss of his dominions, the envenomed rhetoric 
of the Jesuits, and the active zeal of the Bavarian minister, 
represented this dreaded alliance between the Huguenots 
and the Swedes as an undoubted fact, and filled the timid 
mind of Louis with the most alarming fears. Not merely 
chimerical politicians, but many of the best informed 
Roman Catholics, fully believed that the king was on the 
point of breaking' into the heart of France, to make com- 
mon cause with the Huguenots, and to overturn the 
Catholic religion within the kingdom. Fanatical zealots 
already saw him, with liis army, crossing the Alps and 
dethroning the Vicegerent of Christ in Italy. Such 
reports no doubt soon refute themselves ; yet it cannot be 
denied that Gustavus, by his manoeuvres on the Rhine, 
gave a dangerous handle to the malice of his enemies, and 
in some measure justified the suspicion that he directed 
his arms, not so much against the Emperor and the 
Duke of Bavaria, as against the Roman Catholic religion 
itself. 

The general clamor of discontent which the Jesuits 
raised in all the Catholic courts against the alliance be- 
tween France and the enemy of the church at last com- 
pelled Cardinal Richelieu to take a decisive step for the 
security of his religion, and at once to convince the 
Roman Catholic world of the zeal of France, and of the 
selfish policy of the ecclesiastical states of Germany. 
Convinced that the views of the King of Sweden, like his 
own, aimed solely at the humiliation of the power of 
Austria, he hesitated not to promise to the princes of the 
League, on the part of Sweden, a complete neutrality, 
immediately they abandoned their alliance with the Em- 
peror and withdrew their troops. Whatever the resolu- 
tion these princes should adopt Richelieu would equally 
attain his object. By their separation from the Austrian 
interest Ferdinand would be exposed to the combined 
attack of France and Sweden ; and Gustavus Adolphus, 
freed from his other enemies in Germany, would be able 
to direct his undivided force against the hereditary do- 
minions of Austria. Li that event the fall of Austria 
was inevitable, and this great object of Richelieu's policy 
would be gained without injury to the church. If, on 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 201 

the other hand, the princes of the League persisted in 
their opposition, and adhered to the Austrian alliance, the 
result would indeed be more doubtful, but still France 
would have sufficiently proved to all Europe the sincerity 
of her attachment to the Catholic cause, and performed 
her duty as a member of the Roman Church. The 
princes of the League would then appear the sole au- 
thors of those evils which the continuance of the war 
would unavoidably bring upon the Roman Catholics of 
Germany ; they alone, by their wilful and obstinate ad- 
herence to the Emperor, would frustrate the measures 
employed for their protection, involve the church in 
danger, and themselves in ruin. 

Richelieu pursued this plan with greater zeal, the more 
he was embarrassed by the repeated demands of the 
Elector of Bavaria for assistance from France ; for this 
prince, as already stated, when he first began_ to enter- 
tain suspicions of the Emperor, entered immediately into 
a secret alliance with France, by which, in the event of 
any change in the Emperor's sentiments, he hoped to 
secure the possession of the Palatinate. But though the 
origin of the treaty clearly showed against what enemy 
it was directed, Maximilian now thought proper to make 
use of it against the King of Sweden, and did npt hesi- 
tate to demand from France that assistance against her 
ally which she had simply promised against Austria. 
Richelieu, embarrassed by this conflicting alliance with 
two hostile powers, had no resource left but to endeavor 
to put a speedy termination to their hostilities ; and as 
little inclined to sacrifice Bavaria, as he was disabled, by 
his treaty with Sweden, from assisting it, he set himself, 
with all diligence, to bring about a neutrality as the only 
means of fulfilling his obligations to both. For this pur- 
pose the Marquis of Breze was sent, as his plenipoten- 
tiary, to the King of Sweden at Mentz, to learn his senti- 
ments on this point, and to procure from him favorable 
conditions for the allied princes. But if Louis XIIL had 
powerful motives for wishing for this neutrality, Gustavus 
Adolphus had as grave reasons for desiring the contrary. 
Convinced by numerous proofs that the hatred of the 
princes of the League to the Protestant religion was in- 



202 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

vincible, their aversion to the foreign power of the 
Swedes inextinguishable, and their attachment to the 
House of Austria irrevocable, he apprehended less danger 
from their open hostility than from a neutrality which 
was so little in unison with their real inclinations ; and, 
moreover, as he was constrained to carry on the war in 
Germany at the expense of the enemy, he manifestly sus- 
tained great loss if he diminished their number without 
increasing that of his friends. It was not surprising, 
therefore, if Gustavus evinced little inclination to pur- 
chase the neutrality of the League, by which he was 
likely to gain so little, at the expense of the advantages 
he had already obtained. 

The conditions, accordingly, upon which he offered to 
adopt the neutrality towards Bavaria were severe, and 
suited to these views. He required of the whole League 
a full and entire cessation from all hostilities; the recall 
of their troops from the imperial array, from the con- 
quered towns, and from all the Protestant countries ; the 
reduction of their military force; the exclusion of the 
imperial armies from their territories, and from supplies 
either of men, provisions, or ammunition. Hard as the 
conditions were which the victor thus imposed upon the 
vanquished the French mediator flattered himself he 
should be able to induce the Elector of Bavaria to accept 
them. In order to give time for an accommodation, Gus- 
tavus had agreed to a cessation of hostilities for a fort- 
night. But at the very time when this monarch was 
receiving from the French agents repeated assurances of 
the favorable progress of the negotiation, an intercepted 
letter from the Elector to Pappenheim, the imperial gen- 
eral in Westphalia, revealed the perfidy of that prince, as 
having no other object in view by the whole negotiation 
than to gain time for his measures of defence. Far 
from intending to fetter his military operations by a 
truce with Sweden, the artful prince hastened his prep- 
arations, and employed the leisure which his enemy 
afforded him, in making the most active dispositions for 
resistance. The negotiation accordingly failed, and 
served only to increase the animosity of the Bavarians 
and the Swedes. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 203 

Tilly's augmented force, with which he threatened to 
overrun Franconia, urgently required the king's presence 
in that circle ; but it was necessary to expel previously 
the Spaniards from the Rhine, and to cut off their means 
of invading Germany from the Netherlands. With this 
view, Gustavus Adolphus had made an offer of neutrality 
to the Elector of Treves, Philip von Zeltern, on condi- 
tion that the fortress of Herman stein should be delivered 
up to him, and a free passage granted to his troops 
through Coblentz. But unwillingly as the Elector had 
beheld the Spaniards within his territories, he was still 
less disposed to commit his estates to the suspicious pro- 
tection of a heretic, and to make the Swedish conqueror 
master of his destinies. Too weak to maintain his inde- 
pendence between two such powerful competitors, he took 
refuge in the protection of France. With his usual pru- 
dence, Richelieu profited by the embarrassments of this 
prince to augment the power of France, and to gain for 
her an important ally on the German frontier. A numer- 
ous French army was despatched to protect the territory 
of Treves, and a French garrison was received into 
Ehrenbreitstein. But the object which had moved the 
Elector to this bold step was not completely gained, for 
the offended pride of Gustavus Adolphus was not ap- 
peased till he had obtained a free passage for his troops 
through Treves. 

Pending these negotiations with Treves and France, 
the king's generals had entirely cleared the territory of 
Mentz of the Spanish garrisons, and Gustavus himself 
completed the conquest of this district by the capture of 
Kreutznach. To protect these conquests the Chancellor 
Oxenstiern was left with a division of the army upon the 
Middle Rhine, while the main body, under the king him- 
self, began its march against the enemy in Franconia. 

^ The possession of this circle had, in the meantime, been 
disputed with variable success, between Count Tilly and the 
Swedish General Horn, whom Gustavus had left there with 
eight thousand men ; and the Bishopric of Bamberg, in 
particular, was at once the prize and the scene of their 
strugo;le. Called away to the Rhine by his other projects, 
the king had left to his general the chastisement of the 



204 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

bishop, whose perfidy had excited his indignation, and 
the activity of Horn justified the choice. In a short time 
he subdued the greater part of the bishopric; and the 
capital itself, abandoned by its imperial garrison, was 
carried by storm. The banished bishop urgently de- 
manded assistance from the Elector of Bavaria, who was 
at length persuaded to put an end to Tilly's inactivity. 
Fully empowered by his master's order to restore the 
bishop to his possessions, this general collected his troops, 
who were scattered over the Upper Palatinate, and with 
an army of twenty thousand men advanced upon Bam- 
berg. Firmly resolved to maintain his conquest, even 
against this overwhelming force, Horn awaited the enemy 
within the walls of Bamberg ; but was obliged to yield to 
the vanguard of Tilly what he had thought to be able to 
dispute with his whole army. A panic which suddenly 
seized his troops, and which no presence of mind of their 
general could check, opened the gates to the enemy, and 
it was with difficulty that the troops, baggage, and artil- 
lery were saved. The reconquest of Bamberg was tlie 
fruit of this victory ; but Tilly, with all his activity, was 
unable to overtake the Swedish general, wlio retired in 
good order behind the Maine. The king's appearance in 
Franconia, and his junction with Gustavus Horn at 
Kitzingen, put a stop to Tilly's conquests, and com- 
pelled him to provide for his own safety by a rapid re- 
treat. 

The king made a general review of his troops at Asch- 
affenburg. After his junction with Gustavus Horn, 
Banner, and Duke William of Weimar, they amounted 
to nearly forty thousand men. His progress through 
Franconia was uninterrupted ; for Tilly, far too weak to 
encounter an enemy so superior in numbers, had retreated, 
by rapid marches, towards the Danube. Boliemia and 
Bavaria were now equally near to the king, and, uncer- 
tain Avhither his victorious course might be directed, 
Maximilian could form no immediate resolution. The 
choice of the king, and the fate of both provinces, now 
depended on the road that should be left open to Count 
Tilly. It was dangerous, during the approach of so for- 
midable an enemy, to leave Bavai ia undefended, in order 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 205 

to protect Austria; still more dangerous, by receiving 
Tilly into Bavaria, to draw thither the enemy also, and 
to render it the seat of a destructive war. The cares of 
the sovereign finally overcame the scruples of the states- 
man, and Tilly received orders, at all hazards, to cover 
the frontiers of Bavaria with his army. 

Nuremberg received with triumphant joy the pro- 
tector of the Protestant religion and German freedom, 
and the enthusiasm of the citizens expressed itself on his 
arrival in loud transports of admiration and joy. Even 
Gustavus could not contain his astonishment to see him- 
self in this city, which Avas the very centre of Germany, 
where he had never expected to be able to penetrate. 
The noble ajDpearance of his person completed the im- 
pression produced by his glorious exploits, and the con- 
descension with which he received the congratulations of 
this free city won all hearts. He now confirmed the 
alliance he had concluded with it on the shores of the 
Baltic, and excited the citizens to zealous activity and 
fraternal unity against the common enemy. After a 
short stay in Nuremberg he followed his army to the 
Danube, and ai:)peared unexpectedly before the frontier 
town of Donauwerth. A numerous Bavarian garrison 
defended the place, and their commander, Rodol}:>h Maxi- 
milian, Duke of Saxe Lauenburg, showed at first a resolute 
determination to defend it till the arrival of Tilly. But 
the vigor with which Gustavus Adolphus prosecuted the 
siege soon compelled him to take measures for a speedy 
and secure retreat, which, amidst a tremendous fire from 
the Swedish artillery, he successfully executed. 

The conquest of Donauwerth opened to the king the 
further side of the Danube, and now the small river 
Lech alone separated him from Bavaria. The immediate 
danger of his dominions aroused all Maximilian's activity, 
and however little he had hitherto disturbed the enemy's 
progress to his frontier, he now determined to dispute as 
resolutely the remainder of their course. On the oppo- 
site bank of the Lech, near the small town of Rain, Tilly 
occupied a strongly fortified camp, which, surrounded by 
three rivers, bade defiance to all attack. All the bridges 
over the Lech were destroyed ; the whole course of the 



206 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

stream protected by strong garrisons as far as Augsburg^ 
and that town itself, which had long betrayed its impa- 
tience to follow the example of Nuremberg and Frank- 
fort, secured by a Bavarian garrison, and the disarming 
of its inhabitants. The Elector himself, with all the 
troops he could collect, threw himself into Tilly's camp, 
as if all his hopes centred on this single point, and here 
the good fortune of the Swedes was to suffer shipwreck 
forever. 

Gustavus Adolphus, after subduing the whole territory 
of Augsburg, on his own side of the river, and opening 
to his troops a rich supply of necessaries from that quar- 
ter, soon appeared on the bank opposite the Bavarian 
intrenchments. It was now the month of March, when 
the river, swollen by frequent rains and the melting of 
the snow from the mountains of the Tyrol, flowed full 
and rapid between its steep banks. Its boiling current 
threatened the rash assailants with certain destruction, 
while from the opposite side the enemy's cannon showed 
their murderous mouths. If, in despite of the fury both 
of fire and water, they should accomplish this almost 
impossible passage, a fresh and vigorous enemy awaited 
the exhausted troops in an impregnable camp ; and when 
they needed repose and refreshment they must prepare 
for battle. With exhausted powers they must ascend 
the hostile intrenchments, whose strength seemed to bid 
defiance to every assault. A defeat sustained upon this 
shore would be attended with inevitable destruction, 
since the same stream which impeded their advance 
would also cut off their retreat if fortune should abandon 
them. 

The Swedish council of war, which the king now 
assembled, strongly urged upon him all these considera- 
tions, in order to deter him from this dangerous under- 
taking. The most intrepid were appalled, and a troop of 
honorable warriors, who had grown gray in the field, did 
not hesitate to express tlieir alarm. But the king's reso- 
lution was fixed. " What ! " said he to Gustavus Horn, 
who spoke for the rest, "have we crossed tlie Baltic, 
and so many great rivers of Germany, and shall we now 
be checked by a brook like the Lech ? " Gustavus had 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 207 

already at great personal risk reconnoitred the whole 
country, and discovered that his own side of the river 
was higher than the other, and consequently gave a con- 
siderable advantage to the fire of the Swedish artillery 
over that of the enemy. With great presence of mind 
he determined to profit by this circumstance. At the 
point where the left bank of the Lech forms an angle 
with the right he immediately caused three batteries to 
be erected, from which seventy-two field-pieces main- 
tained a cross fire upon the enemy. While this tremen- 
dous cannonade drove the Bavarians from the opposite 
bank, he caused to be erected a bridge over the river 
with all possible rapidity. A thick smoke, kept up by 
burning wood and wet straw, concealed for some time the 
progress of the work from the enemy, while the contin- 
ued thunder of the cannon overpowered the noise of the 
axes. He kept alive by his own example the courage of 
his troops, and discharged more than sixty cannon with 
his own hand. The cannonade was returned by the 
Bavarians with equal vivacity for two hours, though with 
less effect, as the Swedish batteries swept the lower oppo- 
site bank, while their height served as a breastwork to 
their own troops. In vain, therefore, did the Bavarians 
attempt to destroy these works ; the superior fire of the 
Swedes threw them into disorder, and the bridge was com- 
pleted under their very eyes. On this dreadful day Tilly 
did everything in his power to encourage his troops, and 
no danger could drive him from the bank. At length he 
found tlie death Avhich he sought, a cannon-ball shattered 
his leg ; and Altringer, his brave companion-in-arms, was 
soon after dangerously wounded in the head. Deprived 
of the animating presence of their two generals the 
Bavarians gave way at last, and Maximilian, in spite of 
his own judgment, was driven to adopt a pusillanimous 
resolve. Overcome by the persuasions of the dying 
Tilly, whose wonted firmness was overpowered by the 
near approach of death, he gave up his impregnable posi- 
tion for lost ; and the discovery by the Swedes of a ford 
by which their cavalry were on the point of passing, 
accelerated his inglorious retreat. The same night, be- 
fore a single soldier of the enemy had crossed the Lech, 



208 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

he broke up his camp, and without giving time for the 
king to harass him in his march, retreated in good order 
to Neuburgh and Ingolstadt. With astonishment did 
Gustavus Adoljjhus, who comjDleted the passage of the 
river on the following day, behold the hostile camp 
abandoned ; and the Elector's flight surprised him still 
more when he saw the strength of the position he had 
quitted. " Had I been the Bavarian," said he, " though 
a cannon-ball had carried away my beard and chin, never 
would I have abandoned a position like this and laid open 
my territory to my enemies." 

Bavaria now lay exposed to the conquerer ; and, for 
the first time the tide of war, which had hitherto only 
beat against its frontier, now flowed over its long spared 
and fertile fields. Before, however, the king proceeded 
to the conquest of these provinces, he delivered the town 
of Augsburg from the yoke of Bavaria, exacted an oath of 
allegiance from the citizens, and to secure its observance 
left a garrison in the town. He then advanced by rapid 
marches against Ingolstadt, in order, by the capture of 
this important fortress, which the Elector covered with 
the greater part of his army, to secure his conquests in 
Bavaria and obtain a firm footing on the Danube. 

Shortly after the appearance of the Swedish King 
before Ingoldstadt, the wounded Tilly, after experiencing 
the caprice of unstable fortune, terminated his career 
within the walls of that town. Conquered by the supe- 
rior generalship of Gustavus Adolphus, he lost at the 
close of his days all the laurels of his earlier victories, and 
appeased by a series of misfortunes the demands of jus- 
tice and the avenging manes of Magdeburg. In his 
death the Imperial army and that of the League sus- 
tained an irreparable loss ; the Roman Catholic religion 
was deprived of its most zealous defender, and Maximil- 
ian of Bavaria of the most faithful of his servants, who 
sealed his fidelity by his death, and even in his dying 
moments fulfilled the duties of a general. His last mes- 
sage to the Elector was an urgent advice to take possess- 
ion of Ratisbon, in order to maintain the command of the 
Danube, and to keep open the communication with 
Bohemia. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 209 

With the confidence which was the natural fruit of so 
many victories, Gustavus Adolphus commenced the siege 
of Ingolstadt, hoping to gain the town by the fury of his 
first assault. But the sti-ength of its fortifications and 
the bravery of its gan-ison presented obstacles greater 
than any he had had to encounter since the battle of 
Breitenfeld, and the walls of Ingolstadt were near putting 
an end to his career. While reconnoitring the works a 
twenty-four-pounder killed his horse under him and he 
fell to the ground, while almost immediately afterwards 
another ball struck his favorite, the young Margrave of 
Baden, by his side. With perfect self-possession the king 
rose and quieted the fears of his troops by immediately 
mounting another horse. 

The occupation of Ratisbon by the Bavarians, who, by 
the advice of Tilly, had surprised this town by stratagem, 
and placed in it a strong garrison, quickly changed the 
king's plan of operations. He had flattered himself with 
the hope of gaining this town, which favored the Prot- 
estant cause, and to find in it an ally as devoted to him as 
Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Frankfort. Its seizure by 
the Bavarians seemed to postpone for a long time the 
fulfilment of his favorite project of making himself mas- 
ter of the Danube, and cutting off his adversaries' sup- 
plies from Bohemia. He suddenly raised the siege of 
Ingoldstadt, before which he had wasted both his time 
and his troops, and penetrated into the interior of Bavaria, 
in order to draw the Elector into that quarter for the 
defence of his territories, and thus to strip the Danube 
of its defenders. 

The whole country as far as Munich now lay open to 
the conqueror. Mosberg, Landshut, and the whole terri- 
tory of Freysingen submitted; nothing could resist his 
arms. But if he met with no regular force to oppose his 
progress he had to contend against a still more implac- 
able enemy in the heart of every Bavarian — religious 
fanaticism._ Soldiers who did not believe in the Pope 
were, in this country, a new and unheard-of phenomenon ; 
the blind zeal of the priests represented them to the 
peasantry as monsters, the children of hell, and their 
leader as Antichrist. No wonder, then, if they thought 



210 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

themselves released from all the ties of nature and human- 
ity towards this brood of Satan, and justified in commit, 
ting the most savage atrocities upon them. Woe to the 
Swedish soldier who fell into their hands ! All the 
torments which inventive malice could devise were exer- 
cised upon these unhappy victims ; and the sight of their 
mangled bodies exasperated the army to a fearful retalia- 
tion. Gustavus Adolphus, alone, sullied the lustre of his 
heroic character by no act of revenge ; and the aversion 
which the Bavarians felt towards his religion, far from 
making him depart from the obligations of humanity 
towards that unfortunate people, seemed to impose upon 
him the stricter duty to honor his religion by a more 
constant clemency. 

The approach of the king spread terror and conster- 
nation in the capital, which, stripjDed of its defenders, 
and abandoned by its principal inhabitants, placed all its 
hopes in the magnanimity of the conqueror. By an 
unconditional and voluntary surrender it hoped to dis- 
arm his vengeance ; and sent deputies even to Freysingen 
to lay at his feet the keys of the city. Strongly as the 
king might have been tempted by the inhumanity of the 
Bavarians, and the hostility of their sovereign, to make 
a dreadful use of the rights of victory ; pressed as he 
was by Germans to avenge the fate of Magdeburg on the 
capital of its destroyer, this great prince scorned this 
mean revenge; and the very helplessness of his enemies 
disarmed his severity. Contented with the more noble 
triumph of conducting the Palatine Frederick with the 
pomp of a victor into the very palace of the prince who 
had been the chief instrument of his ruin, and the usurper 
of his territories, he heightened the brilliancy of his tri- 
umphal entry by the brighter splendor of moderation 
and clemency. 

The king found in Munich only a forsaken palace, for 
the Elector's treasures had been transported to Werfen. 
The magnificence of the building astonished him ; and he 
asked the guide who showed the apartments who was the 
architect. " No other," replied he, " than the Elector 
himself." "I wish," said the king, "I had this archi' 
tect to send to Stockholm." "That," he was answered, 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 211 

"the architect will take care to prevent." When the 
arsenal was examined, they found nothing but carrriages, 
stripped of their cannon. The latter had been so artfully 
concealed under the floor that no traces of them re= 
mained; and but for the treachery of a workman, the 
deceit would not have been detected. " Rise up from 
the dead," said the king, "and come to judgment." 
The floor was pulled up, and one hundred and forty 
pieces of cannon discovered, some of extraordinary cal- 
ibre, which had been principally taken in the Palatinate 
and Bohemia. A treasure of thirty thousand gold ducats, 
concealed in one of the largest, completed the pleasure 
which the king received from this valuable acquisition. 

A far more welcome spectacle still would have been 
the Bavarian army itself ; for his march into the heart of 
Bavaria had been undertaken chiefly with the view of 
luring them from their intrenchments. In this expec- 
tation he was disappointed. No enemy appeared ; no 
entreaties, however urgent, on the part of his subjects, 
could induce the Elector to risk the remainder of his 
army to the chances of a battle. Shut up in Ratisbon, he 
awaited the reinforcements which Wallenstein was bring- 
ing from Bohemia ; and endeavored, in the meantime, 
to amuse his enemy and keep him inactive by reviving 
the negotiation for a neutrality. But the king's distrust, 
too often and too justly excited by his previous conduct, 
frustrated this design ; and the intentional delay of Wal- 
lenstein abandoned Bavaria to the Swedes. 

Thus far had Gustavus advanced from victory to victory 
without meeting with an enemy able to cope with him. 
A part of Bavaria and Swabia, the bishoprics of Fran- 
conia, the Lower Palatinate, and the archbishopric of 
Mentz lay conquered in his rear. An uninterrupted 
career of conquest had conducted him to the threshold 
of Austria; and the most brilliant success had fully jus- 
tified the plan of operations which he had formed after 
the battle of Breitenfeld. If he had not succeeded to his 
wish in promoting a confederacy among the Protestant 
States, he had at least disarmed or weakened the League, 
carried on the war chiefly at its expense, lessened the 
Emperor's resources, emboldened the weaker States, and 



212 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

while he laid under contribution the allies of the Emperor 
foi'ced a way through their territories into Austria itself. 
Where arms were unavailing, the greatest service was 
rendered by the friendship of the free cities, whose affec- 
tions he had gained by the double ties of j^olicy and 
religion ; and, as long as he should maintain his superi- 
ority in the field, he might reckon on everything from 
their zeal. By his conquests on the Rhine, the Spaniards 
were cut off from the Lower Palatinate, even if the state 
of the war in the Nethei'lands left them at liberty to 
interfere in the affairs of Germany. The Duke of Lor- 
raine, too, after his unfortunate campaign, had been glad 
to adopt a neutrality. Even the numerous garrisons he 
had left behind him in his progress through Germany 
had not diminished his army; and, fresh and vigorous as 
when he first began his march, he now stood in the centre 
of Bavaria, determined and prepared to carry the war 
into the heart of Austria. 

While Gustavus Adolphus thus maintained his sujseri- 
ority within the empire, fortune, in another quarter, had 
been no less favorable to his ally, the Elector of Saxony. 
By the arrangement concerted between these princes at 
Halle, after the battle of Leipzig, the conquest of Bohemia 
was intrusted to the Elector of Saxony, while the king- 
reserved for himself the attack upon the territories of the 
League. The first fruits which the Elector reaped from 
the battle of Breitenfeld, was the reconquest of Leipzig, 
which was shortly followed by the expulsion of the Aus- 
trian garrisons from the entire circle. Reinforced by the 
troops who deserted to him from the hostile garrisons, 
the Saxon General, Arnheim, marched towards Lusatia, 
which had been overrun by an Imperial general, Rudolph 
von Tiefenbach, in order to chastise the Elector for em- 
bracing the cause of the enemy. He had already com- 
menced in this weakly defended province the usual course 
of devastation, taken several towns, and terrified Dresden 
itself by his approach, when his destructive progress was 
suddenly stopped by an express mandate from the Em- 
peror to spare the possessions of the King of Saxony. 

Ferdinand had perceived too late the errors of that 
policy, which had reduced the Elector of Saxony t(? 



* ...... 21^ 



THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 

extremities, and forcibly driven this powerful monarch 
into an alliance with Sweden. By moderation, equally ill- 
timed, he now wished to repair if possible the consequences 
of his haughtiness ; and thus committed a second error in 
endeavoring to repair the first. To deprive his enemy 
of so powerful an ally, he had opened, through the inter- 
vention of Spain, a negotiation with the Elector ; and in 
order to facilitate an accommodation, Tiefenbach was 
ordered immediately to retire from Saxony. But these 
concessions of the Emperor, far from producing the 
desired effect, only revealed to the Elector the embar- 
rassment of his adversary and his own importance, and 
emboldened him the more to prosecute the advantages 
he had already obtained. How could he, moreover, with- 
out becoming chargeable with the most shameful ingrat- 
itude, abandon an ally to whom he had given the most 
solemn assurances of fidelity, and to whom he was in- 
debted for the preservation of his dominions, and even 
of his Electoral dignity ? 

The Saxon army, now relieved from the necessity of 
marching into Lusatia, advanced towards Bohemia, where 
a combination of favorable circumstances seemed to 
insure them an easy victory. In this kingdom, the first 
scene of this fatal war, the flames of dissension still 
smouldered beneath the ashes, while the discontent of 
the inhabitants was fomented by daily acts of oppression 
and tyranny. On every side this unfortunate country 
showed signs of a mournful change. Whole districts had 
changed their proprietors, and groaned under the hated 
yoke of Roman Catholic masters, whom the favor of the 
Emperor and the Jesuits had enriched with the plunder 
and possessions of the exiled Protestants. Others, taking 
advantage themselves of the general distress, had pur- 
chased, at a low rate, the confiscated estates. The blood 
of the most eminent champions of liberty had been shed 
upon the scaffold ; and such as by a timely flight avoided 
that fate were wandering in misery far from their native 
land, while the obsequious slaves of despotism enjoyed 
their patrimony. Still more insupportable than the 
oppression of these petty tyrants, was the restraint of 
conscience which was imposed without distinction on all 



^14 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

the Protestants of that kingdom. No external danger, 
no opposition on the part of the nation, however stead- 
fast, not even the fearful lessons of past experience could 
check in the Jesuits the rage of j^roselytism ; where fair 
means were ineffectual, recourse was had to military 
force to bring the deluded wanderers within the pale of 
the church. The inhabitants of Joachinisthal, on the 
frontiers betw'een Bohemia and Meissen, were the chief 
sufferers from this violence. Two imperial commissaries, 
accompanied by as many Jesuits, and supported by 
fifteen musketeers, made their appearance in this peace- 
ful valley to preach the gospel to the heretics. Where 
the rhetoric of the former was ineffectual, the forcibly 
quartering the latter upon the houses, and threats of 
banishment and fines were tried. But on this occasion, 
the good cause prevailed, and the bold resistance of this 
small district compelled the Emperor disgracefully to 
recall his mandate of conversion. The example of the 
court had, however, afforded a precedent to the Roman 
Catholics of the empire, and seemed to justify every act 
of oppression which their insolence tempted them to 
wreak upon the Protestants. It is not surprising, then, 
if this persecuted party was favorable to a revolution, 
and saw with pleasure their deliverers on the frontiers. 

The Saxon army was already on its march towards 
Prague, the imperial garrisons everywhere retired before 
them ; Schloeckenau, Tetschen, Aussig, Leutmeritz, soon 
fell into the enemy's hands, and every Roman Catholic 
place was abandoned to plunder. Consternation seized 
all the Papists of the Empire ; and conscious of the out- 
rages which they themselves had committed on the 
Protestants, they did not venture to abide the vengeful 
arrival of a Protestant army. All the Roman Catholics 
who had anything to lose fled hastily from the country 
to the capita], which again they presently abandoned. 
Prague was unprepared for an attack, and was too 
weakly garrisoned to sustain a long siege. Too late had 
the Emperor resolved to despatch Field-Marshal Tiefen- 
bach to the defence of tliis capital. Before the imperial 
orders could reach the headquarters of that general, in 
Silesia, the Saxons weie already close to Prague, the 



THiE THIRTY YEARS^ WAR. 215 

Protestant inhabitants of which showed little zeal, wliile 
the weakness of the garrison left no room to hope a long 
resistance. In this fearful state of erabari-assment the 
Roman Catholics of Prague looked for security to Wal- 
lenstein, who now lived in that city as a private in- 
dividual. But far from lending his military experience, 
and the weight of his name, towards its defence, he 
seized the favorable opportunity to satiate his thirst for 
revenge. If he did not actually invite the Saxons to 
Prague, at least his conduct facilitated its capture. 
Though unprepared, the town might still hold out until 
succors could arrive ; and an imperial colonel, Count 
Maradas, showed serious intentions of undertaking its 
defence. But without command and authority, and 
having no support but his own zeal and courage, he did 
not dare to venture upon such a step without the advice of 
a superior. He therefore consulted the Duke of Fried- 
land, whose approbation might supply the want of au- 
thority from the Emperor, and to whom the Bohemian 
generals were referred by an express edict of the court in 
the last extremity. He, however, artfully excused him- 
self, on the plea of holding no official appointment, and 
his long retirement from the political world ; while he 
weakened the resolution of the subalterns by the scruples 
which he suggested, and painted in tlie strongest colors. 
At last, to render the consternation general and complete, 
he quitted the capital with his whole court, however 
little he had to fear from its capture ; and the city was 
lost, because, by his departm'e, he showed that he de- 
spaired of its safety. His example was followed by all 
the Roman Catholic nobility, the generals with their 
troops, the clergy, and all the officers of the crown. All 
night the people were employed in saving their persons 
and effects. The roads to Vienna were crowded with 
fugitives, who scarcely recovered from their consternation 
till they reached the imperial city. Maradas himself, de- 
spairing of the safety of Prague, followed the rest, and led 
5iis small detachment to Tabor, where he awaited the event. 
Profound silence reigned in Prague, when the Saxons 
next morning appeared before it; no preparations were 
made for defence; not a single shot from the walia 



216 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

announced an intention of resistance. On the contrary, 
a crowd of spectators from the town, allured by curiosity, 
came flocking round, to behold the foreign army ; and 
the peaceful confidence with which they advanced re- 
sembled a friendly salutation more than a hostile recep- 
tion. From the concurrent reports of these people the 
Swedes learned that the town had been deserted by the 
troops, and that the government had fled to Budweiss. 
This unexpected and inexplicable absence of resistance 
excited Arnheim's distrust the more, as the speedy 
approach of the Silesian succors was no secret to him, 
and r,s he knew that the Saxon army was too indifferently 
provided with materials for undertaking a siege, and by 
far too weak in numbers to attempt to take the place by 
storm. Apprehensive of stratagem, he redoubled his 
vigilance ; and he continued in this conviction until 
Wallenstein's house-steward, whom he discovered among 
the crowd, confirmed to him this intelligence. " The 
town is ours without a blow!'* exclaimed he in astonish- 
ment to his ofiicers, and immediately summoned it by a 
trumpeter. 

The citizens of Prague, thus shamefully abandoned by 
their defenders, had long taken their resolution ; all that 
they had to do was to secure their properties and liberties 
by an advantageous capitulation. No sooner was the 
treaty signed by the Saxon general, in his master's name, 
than the gates were opened,wit]iout farther opposition ; 
and upon the 11th of November, 1631, the army made 
their triumphal entry. The Elector soon after followed 
in person, to receive the homage of those whom he had 
newly taken under his protection : for it was only in the 
character of protector that the three towns of Prague had 
surrendered to him. Their allegiance to the Austrian 
monarchy was not to be dissolved by the step they had 
taken. In proportion as the Papists' apprehensions of 
reprisals on the part of the Protestants had been exag- 
gerated, so was their surprise great at the moderation of 
the Elector, and the discipline of his troops. Field- 
Marshal Arnheini plainly evinced, on this occasion, his 
respect for Wallenstein. Not content with sparing his 
estates on his march, he now placed guards over his 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 217 

palace, in Prague, to prevent the plunder of any of his 
effects. The Roman Catholics of the town were allowed 
the fullest liberty of conscience ; and of all the churches 
they had wi-ested from the Protestants four only were 
now taken back from them. From this general indulg- 
ence none were excluded but the Jesuits, who were 
generally considered as the authors of all past grievances, 
and thus banished the kingdom. 

John George belied not the submission and dependence 
with which the terror of the imperial name inspired him ; 
nor did he indulge at Prague in a course of conduct 
which would assuredly have been pursued against himself 
in Dresden by imperial generals, such as Tilly or Wallen- 
stein. He carefully distinguished between the enemy 
with whom he was at war, and the head of the Empire, 
to whom he owed obedience. He did not venture to 
touch the household furniture of the latter, while, with- 
out scruple, he appropriated and transported to Dresden 
the cannon of the former. He did not take up his resi- 
dence in the imperial palace, but the house of Lichten- 
stein ; too modest to use the apartments of one whom he 
had deprived of a kingdom. Had this trait been related 
of a great man and a hero it would irresistibly excite 
our admiration ; but the character of this prince leaves us 
in doubt whether this moderation ought to be ascribed to 
a noble self-command or to the littleness of a weak mind, 
which even good fortune could not embolden, and liberty 
itself could not strip of its habituated fetters. 

The surrender of Prague, which was quickly followed 
by that of most of the other towns, effected a great and 
sudden change in Bohemia. Many of the Protestant 
nobility, who had hitherto been wandering about in 
misery now returned to their native country ; and Count 
Thurn, the famous author of the Bohemian insurrection, 
enjoyed the triumph of returning as a conqueror to the 
scene of his crime and his condemnation. Over the very 
bridge where the heads of his adherents, exposed to view, 
held out a fearful picture of the fate which had threatened 
iimself, he now made his triumphal entry ; and to re- 
move these ghastly objects was his first care._ The exiles 
again took possession of their properties, without think- 



218 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

ing of recompensing for the purchase-money the present 
possessors, who had mostly taken to flight. Even though 
they had received a price for their estates, they seized on 
everything which had once been their own ; and many 
had reason to rejoice at the economy of the late posses- 
sors. The lands and cattle had greatly iniiDroved in their 
hands; the apartments were now decorated with the 
most costly furniture; the cellars, which had been left 
empty, were richly filled ; the stables supplied ; the mag 
azines stored with provisions. But distrusting the con- 
stancy of that good fortune which had so unexpectedly 
smiled upon them, they hastened to get quit of these 
insecure possessions, and to convert their immovable into 
transferable j^roperty. 

The presence of the Saxons inspired all the Protestants 
of the kingdom with courage; and both in the country 
and the capital crowds flocked to the newly-opened 
Protestant churches. Many, whom fear alone had re- 
tained in their adherence to Pojjery, now openly pro- 
fessed the new doctrine; and many of the late converts 
to Roman Catholicism gladly renounced a compulsory 
persuasion to follow the earlier conviction of their con- 
science. All the moderation of the new regency could 
not restrain the manifestation of that just displeasure 
which this persecuted people felt against their oppressors. 
They made a fearful and cruel use of their newly-recov- 
ered rights ; and, in many parts of the kingdom, their 
hatred of the religion which they had been compelled 
to profess could be satiated only by the blood of its 
adherents. 

Meantime the succors which the imperial generals, 
Goetz and Tiefenbach, were conducting from Silesia, had 
entered Bohemia, where they Avere joined by some of 
Tilly's regiments, from the Upper Palatinate. In order 
to disperse them before they should i-eceive any further 
reinforcements, Arnheim advanced with part of his army 
from Prague, and made a vigorous attack on their in- 
trenchments near Limburg, on the Elbe. After a severe 
action, not without great loss, he drove the enemy from 
their fortified camp, and forced them, by his heavy fire, 
to recross the Elbe, and to destroy the bridge which thej 



1 



THE THIKTY YEARS* WAR. 219 

had built over that river. Nevertheless, the Imperialists 
obtained the advantage in several skirmishes, and the 
Croats pushed their incursions to the very gates of 
Prague. Brilliant and promising as the opening of the 
Bohemian campaign had been, the issue by no means 
satisfied the expectations of Gustavus Adolphus. Instead 
of vigorously following up their advantages, by forcing a 
passage to the Swedish army through the conquered 
country, and then, with it, attacking the imperial power 
in its centre, the Saxons weakened themselves in a war of 
skirmishes, in which they were not always successful, 
while they lost the time which should have been devoted 
to greater undertakings. But the Elector's subsequent 
conduct betrayed the motives which had prevented him 
from pushing his advantage over the Emperor, and by 
consistent measures promoting the plans of the King of 
Sweden. 

The Emperor had now lost the greater part of Bohe- 
mia, and the Saxons were advancing against Austria, 
while the Swedish monarch was rapidly moving to the 
same point through Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria. A 
long war had exhausted the strength of the Austrian 
monarchy, wasted the country, and diminished its armies. 
The renown of its victories was no more, as well as the 
confidence inspired by constant success ; its troops had 
lost the obedience and discipline to which those of the 
Swedish monarch owed all their superiority in the field. 
The confederates of the Emperor were disarmed, or their 
fidelity shaken by the danger which threatened them- 
selves. Even Maximilian of Bavaria, Austria's most 
powerful ally, seemed disposed to yield to the seductive 
proposition of neutrality; while his suspicious alliance 
with France had long been a subject of apprehension to 
the Emperor. The Bishops of Wurtzburg and Bamberg, 
the Elector of Mentz, and the Duke of Lorraine, were 
either expelled from their territories, or threatened with 
immediate attack ; Treves had placed itself under the 
protection of France. The bravery of the Hollanders 
gave full employment to the Spanish arms in the Nether- 
lands ; while Gustavus had driven them from the Rhine. 
Poland was still fettered by the truce which subsisted 



220 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

between that country and Sweden. The Hungarian front, 
ier was threatened by the Transylvanian Prince, Ragotsky, 
a successor of Bethlem Gabor, and the inheritor of his 
restless mind ; while the Porte was making great prepa- 
ration to profit by the favorable conjuncture for aggres- 
sion. Most of the Protestant states, encouraged by their 
protector's success, were openly and actively declaring 
against the Emperor. All the resources which had been 
obtained by the violent and oppressive extortions of Tilly 
and Wallenstein were exhausted ; all these depots, maga- 
zines, and rallying-points were now lost to the Emperor ; 
and the war could no longer be carried on, as before, at 
the cost of others. To complete his embarrassment, a 
dangerous insurrection broke out in the territory of the 
Ens, where the ill-timed religious zeal of the government 
had provoked the Protestants to resistance; and thus 
fanaticism lit its torch within the empire, while a foreign 
enemy was already on its frontier. After so long a con- 
tinuance of good fortune, such brilliant victories and ex- 
tensive conquests, such fruitless effusion of blood, the 
Emperor saw himself a second time on the brink of that 
abyss into which he was so near falling at the commence- 
ment of his reign. If Bavaria should embrace the neu- 
trality ; if Saxony should resist the tempting offers he 
had held out ; and France i-esolve to attack the Spanish 
power at the same time in the Netherlands, in Italy, and 
in Catalonia, the ruin of Austria would be complete ; the 
allied powers would divide its spoils, and the political 
system of Germany would undergo a total change. 

The chain of these disasters began with the battle of 
Breitenfeld, the unfortunate issue of which plainly re- 
vealed the long-decided decline of the Austrian power, 
whose weakness had hitherto been concealed under the 
dazzling glitter of a grand name. The chief cause of the 
Swedes' superiority in the field was evidently to be 
ascribed to the unlimited power of their leader, who con- 
centrated in himself the whole strength of his party; and, 
unfettered in his enterprises by any higher authority, was 
complete master of every favorable opportunity, could 
control all his means to the accomplishment of his ends, 
md was responsible to none but himself. But since 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 221 

Wallenstein's dismissal, and Tilly's defeat, the very re- 
verse of this course was pursued by the Emperor and the 
League. The generals wanted authority over their troops, 
and liberty of acting at their discretion; the soldiers 
were deficient in discipline and obedience ; the scattered 
corps in combined operation ; the states in attachment to 
the cause ; the leaders in harmony among themselves, in 
quickness to resolve, and firmness to execute. What 
gave the Emperor's enemy so decided an advantage over 
him was not so much their superior power as their man- 
ner of using it. The League and the Emperor did not 
want means, but a mind capable of directing them with 
energy and effect. Even had Count Tilly not lost his 
old renown, distrust of Bavaria would not allow the Em- 
peror to place the fate of Austria in the hands of one who 
had never concealed his attachment to the Bavarian 
Elector. The urgent want which Ferdinand felt was 
for a general possessed of sufficient experience to form 
and to command an army, and willing at the. same time 
to^ dedicate his services, with blind devotion, to the Aus- 
trian monarchy. 

This choice now occupied the attention of the Em- 
peror's privy council, and divided the opinions of its 
members. In order to oppose one monarch to another, 
and by the presence of their sovereign to animate the 
courage of the troops, Ferdinand, in the ardor of the 
moment, had offered himself to be the leader of his army; 
but little trouble was required to overturn a resolution 
which was the offspring of despair alone, and which 
yielded at once to calm reflection. But the situation 
which his dignity, and the duties of administration, pre- 
vented the Emperor from holding, might be filled by his 
son,^ a youth of talents and bravery, and of whom the 
subjects of Austria had already formed great expecta- 
tions. Called by his birth to the defence of a monarchy, 
of_ whose crowns he wore two already, Ferdinand IIL, 
King of Hungary and Bohemia, united, with the natural 
dignity of heir to the throne, the respect of the army, and 
the attachment of the people, whose co-operation was in- 
dispensable to him in the conduct of the war. None but 
the beloved heir to the crown could venture to impose 



222 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

new burdens on a people already severely oppressed ; hia 
persona] presence with the army could alone suppress the 
pernicious jealousies of the several leaders, and, by the 
influence of his name, restore the neglected discipline of 
the troops to its former rigor. If so young a leader was 
devoid of the maturity of judgment, prudence, and mili- 
tary experience, which practice alone could impart, this 
deficiency might be supplied by a judicious choice of 
counsellors and assistants, who, under the cover of his 
name, might be vested with supreme authority. 

But plausible as were the arguments with which a part 
of the ministry supported this plan, it was met by diffi- 
culties not less serious, arising from the distrust, perhaps 
even the jealousy of the Emperor, and also from the des- 
jjerate state of affairs. How dangerous was it to entrust 
the fate of the monarchy to a youth who was himself in 
need of counsel and support ! How hazardous to oppose 
to the greatest general of his age a tyro, whose fitness for 
so important a post had never yet been tested by expe- 
rience ; whose name, as yet unknown to fame, was far too 
powerless to inspire a dispirited army with the assurance 
of future victory ! What a new burden on the coun- 
try, to support the state a royal leader was required to 
maintain, and which the prejudices of the age considered 
as inseparable from his presence with the army! How 
serious a consideration for the prince himself, to com- 
mence his political career with an office which must make 
him the scourge of his people, and the oppressor of the 
territories which he was hereafter to rule. 

But not only was a general to be found for the army, 
an army must also be found for the general. Since the 
compulsory resignation of Wallenstein the Emperor had 
defended himself more by the assistance of Bavaria and 
the League than by his own armies ; and it was this de- 
pendence on equivocal allies which he was endeavoring 
to escape by the appointment of a general of his own. 
But what possibility was there of raising an array out of 
nothing, without the all-powerful aid of gold, and the 
inspiriting name of a victorious commander ; above all, 
an army which, by its discipline, warlike spirit, and ac- 
tivity should be fit to cope with the experienced troops 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 223 

of the northern conqueror ? In all Europe, there was but 
one man equal to this, and that one had been mortally 
affronted. 

The moment had at last arrived when more than ordi- 
nary satisfaction was to be done to the wounded pride of 
the Duke of Friedland. Fate itself had been his avenger, 
and an unbroken chain of disasters, which had assailed 
Austria from the day of his dismissal, had wrung front 
the Emperor the humiliating confession that with this 
general he had lost his right arm. Every defeat of his 
troops opened afresh this wound ; every town which he 
lost revived in the mind of the deceived monarch the 
memory of his own weakness and ingratitude. It would 
have been well for him if, in the offended general, he 
had only lost a leader of his troops, and a defender of his 
dominions ; but he was destined to find in him an enemy, 
and the most dangerous of all, since he was least armed 
against the stroke of treason. 

Removed from the theatre of war, and condemned to 
irksome inaction, while his rivals gathered laurels on the 
field of glory, the haughty duke had beheld these changes 
of fortune with affected composure, and concealed, under 
a glittering and theatrical pomp, the dark designs of his 
restless genius. Torn by burning passions within, while 
all without bespoke calmness and indifference, he brooded 
over projects of ambition and revenge, arid slowly, but 
surely, advanced towards his end. All that he owed to 
the Emperor was effaced from his mind ; what he himself 
had done for the Emperor was imprinted in burning 
characters on his memory. To his insatiable thirst for 
power the Emperor's ingratitude was welcome, as it 
seemed to tear in pieces the record of past favors, to 
absolve from him every obligation towards his former 
benefactor. In the disguise of a righteous retaliation, the 
projects dictated by his ambition now appeared to him 
just and pure. In proportion as the external circle of 
his operations was narrowed, the world of hope expanded 
before him, and his dreamy imagination revelled m 
boundless projects, which, in any mind but such as his, 
madness alone could have given birth to. His services 
had raised him to the proudest height which it was pos- 



224 THE THIRTY YEARS' AVAR. 

sible for a man, by his own efforts, to attain. Fortune 
had denied him nothing wliich the subject and tlie citizen 
could lawfully enjoy. Till the moment of his dismissal 
his demands had met with no refusal, his ambition had 
met with no check; but the blow which, at the Diet 
of Ratisbon, humbled him, showed him tlie difference 
between original and deputed power, the distance be- 
tween the subject and his sovereign. Roused from the 
intoxication of his own greatness by this sudden reverse 
of fortune, he compared the authority which he had 
possessed with that which had deprived him of it; and 
his ambition marked the steps whicli it had yet to sur- 
mount upon the ladder of fortune. From the moment he 
had so bitterly experienced the weight of sovereign 
power, his efforts were directed to attain it for himself ; 
the wrong which he himself had suffered made him a 
robber. Had he not been outraged by injustice he might 
liave obediently moved in his orbit round the majesty of 
the throne, satisfied with the glory of being the brightest 
of its satellites. It was only when violently forced from 
its sphere, that his wandering star threw in disorder the 
system to which it belonged, and came in destructive 
collision with its sun. 

Gustavus Adolphus had overrun the north of Germany; 
one place after another was lost ; and at Leipzig the 
flower of the Austrian army had fallen. The intelligence 
of this defeat soon reached the ears of Wallenstein, who, 
in the retired obscurity of a private station in Prague, 
contemplated from a calm distance the tumult of war. 
The news, which filled the breasts of tlie Roman Catholics 
Avitli dismay, announced to him the return of greatness 
and good fortune. ■ For him was Gustavus Adolphus 
laboring. Scarce had the king begun to gain reputation 
by his exploits when Wallenstein lost not a moment to 
court his friendship, and to make common cause with this 
successful enemy of Austria. The banished Count Thurn 
who had long entered the service of Sweden, undertook 
to convey Wallenstein's congratulations to the king, and 
to invite him to a close alliance with the duke. Wallen- 
stein required fifteen thousand men from the king; and 
with these, and the troops he himself engaged to raise, h© 



THE THIRTY YEAllS' WAR. 225 

undertook to conquer Bohemia and Moravia, to surprise 
Vienna, and drive his master, the Emperor, before him 
into Italy. Welcome as was this unexpected proposition, 
its extravagant promises were naturally calculated to ex- 
cite suspicion. Gustavus Adolphus was too good a j udge of 
merit to reject with coldness the offers of one who might 
be so important a friend. But when Wallenstein, en- 
couraged by the favorable reception of his first message, 
renewed it after the battle of Breitenfeld, and pressed 
for a decisive answer, the prudent monarch hesitated^ to 
•trust his reputation to the chimerical projects of so daring 
an adventurer, and to commit so large a force to the 
honesty of a man who felt no shame in openly avowing 
himself a traitor. He excused himself, therefore, on the 
plea of the weakness of his army, which, if diminished by 
so large a detachment, would certainly suffer in its march 
through the empire; and thus, perhaps, by excess of 
caution, lost an opportunity of putting an immediate end 
to the war. He afterwards endeavored to renew the nego- 
tiations ; but the favorable moment was past, and Wallen- 
stein's offended pride never forgave the first neglect. 

But the king's hesitation, perhaps, only accelerated the 
breach which their characters made inevitable sooner or 
later. Both framed by nature to give laws, not to receive 
them, they could not long have co-operated in an enter- 
prise which eminently demanded mutual submission and 
sacrifices. Wallenstein was nothing where he was not 
everything; he must either act with unlimited power or 
not at all. So cordially, too, did Gustavus dislike con- 
trol, that he had almost renounced his advantageous 
alliance with France because it threatened to fetter his 
own independent judgment. Wallenstein was lost toa 
party if he could not lead ; the latter was, if possible, still 
less disposed to obey the instructions of another. If the 
pretensions of a rival would be so irksome to the Duke of 
Friedland, in the conduct of combined operations, in 
the division of the spoil they would be insupportable. 
The proud monarch might condescend to accept the 
assistance of a rebellious subject against the Emperor, 
and to reward his valuable services with regal munifi. 
cence; but he never could so far lose sight of his own 



226 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

dignity, and the majesty of royalty, as to bestow the 
recompense which the extravagant ambition of Wallen- 
stein demanded ; and requite an act of treason, however 
useful, with a crown. In him, therefore, even if all 
Europe should tacitly acquiesce, Wallenstein had reason 
to expect the most decided and formidable oj^ponent to 
his views on the Bohemian crown ; and in all Europe he 
was the only one who could enforce his opposition. 
Constituted Dictator in Germany by Wallenstein himself, 
he might turn his arms against him, and consider himself 
bound by no obligation to one who was himself a traitor. 
There was no room for a Wallenstein under such an ally; 
and it was, apjjarently, this conviction, and not any 
supposed designs upon the iraj^erial throne, that he 
alluded to, when, after the death of the King of Sweden, 
he exclaimed, " It is well for him and me that he is gone. 
The German Emj^ire does not require two such leaders." 
His first scheme of revenge on the house of Austria 
had indeed failed ; but the purpose itself remained un- 
alterable ; the choice of means alone was changed. What 
he had failed in effecting with the King of Sweden, he 
hoped to obtain with less difficulty and more advantage 
from the Elector of Saxony. Him he was as certain of 
being able to bend to his views as he had always been 
doubtful of Gustavus Adolphus. Having always main- 
tained a good understanding with his old friend Arnheim, 
he now made use of him to bring about an alliance with 
Saxony, by which he hoped to render himself equally 
formidable to the Emperor and the King of Sweden. He 
had reason to expect that a scheme, which, if successful, 
Avould deprive the Swedish monarch of his influence in 
Germany, would be welcomed by the Elector of Saxony, 
who he knew was jealous of the power and offended at 
the lofty pretensions of Gustavus Adolphus. _ If he suc- 
ceeded in separating Saxony from the Swedish alliance, 
and in establishing, conjointly with that power, a third 
party in the Empire, the fate of tlie Avar would be placed 
in his hand ; and by this single step he would succeed in 
gratifying his revenge against the Emperor, revenging 
the neglect of the Swedish monarch, and on the ruin of 
\)oth raising the edifice of his own greatness. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 227 

But whatever course he might follow in the prosecution 
of his designs he could not carry them into effect with- 
out an army entirely devoted to him. Such a force could 
not be secretly raised without its coming to the knowl- 
edo-e of the imperial court, where it would naturally 
excite suspicion, and thus frustrate his design in the very 
outset. From the army, too, the rebellious purposes for 
which it was destined must be concealed till the very 
moment of execution, since it could scarcely be expected 
that they would at once be prepai'ed to listen to the voice 
of a traitor, and serve against their legitimate sovereign. 
Wallenstein, therefore, must raise it publicly, and in 
name of the Emperor, and be placed at its head, with 
unlimited authority, by the Emperor himself. But how 
could this be accomplished otherwise than by his being 
appointed to the command of the army, and entrusted 
with full powers to conduct the war. Yet neither his 
pride nor his interest permitted him to sue in person for 
this post, and as a suppliant to accei^t from the favor of 
the Emperor a limited power, when an unlimited author- 
ity might be extorted from his fears. In order to make 
himself the master of the terms on which he would 
resume the command of the army, his course was to wait 
until the jDost should be forced upon him. This Avas 
the advice he received from Arnheim, and this the end 
for which he labored with profound policy and restless 
activity. 

Convinced that extreme necessity would alone conquer 
the Emperor's irresolution, and render powerless the 
opposition of his bitter enemies, Bavaria and Spain, he 
henceforth occupied himself in promoting the success of 
the enemy, and in increasing the embarrassments of his 
master. It was apparently by his instigation and advice 
that the Saxons, when on the route to Lusatia and Silesia, 
had turned their march towards Bohemia, and overrun 
that defenceless kingdom, where their rapid conquests 
was partly the result of his measures. By the fears 
which he affected to entertain he paralyzed every effort 
at resistance ; and his precipitate retreat caused the deliv- 
ery of the capital to the enemy. At a conference with 
Ihe Saxon general, which was held at Kaunitz under the 



228 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

j)retext of negotiating for a peace, tlie seal was jjut to 
the conspiracy, and the conquest of Bohemia was the 
tirst fruits of this mutual understanding. While Wallen- 
stein was thus personally endeavoring to heighten the 
perplexities of Austria, and while the rapid movement!;^ 
of the Swedes upon the Rhine effectually promoted liis 
designs, his friends and bribed adherents in Vienna 
uttered loud complaints of tlie public calamities, and 
represented the dismissal of the general as the sole cause 
of all these misfortunes. " Had Wallenstein commanded, 
matters would never have come to tliis," exclaimed a 
thousand voices ; while their opinions found supporters, 
even in the Emperor's privy council. 

Their repeated remonstrances were not needed to con- 
vince the embarrassed Emperor of his general's merits, 
and of bis own error. His dependence on Bavaria and 
the League bad soon become insupportable ; but hitherto 
this dependence permitted him not to show his distrust, 
or irritate the Elector by the recall of Wallenstein. But 
now, when bis necessities grew every day more pressing, 
and the weakness of Bavaria more apparent, he could no 
longer hesitate to listen to tbe friends of the duke, and to 
consider their overtures for bis restoration to command. 
The immense riches Wallenstein possessed, the universal 
reputation he enjoyed, the rapidity Avitli which six years 
before be bad assembled an army of forty thousand men, 
the little expense at whicli be had maintained this for- 
midable force, tbe actions be bad performed at its head, 
and, lastly, tbe zeal and fidelity be liad displayed for ]vs 
master's honor, still lived in the Emperor's recollection, 
and made Wallenstein seem to bim the ablest instrument 
to restore the balance between the belligerent powers, to 
save Austi'ia, and preserve the Catholic religion. How- 
ever sensibly the imperial pride miglit feel the humilia- 
tion in being forced to make so unequivocal an admission 
of past errors and present necessity; however painful it 
was to descend to bumble entreaties from the height of 
imperial command ; liowever doubtful the fidelity of so 
deeply-injured and implacable a character; however 
loudly and urgently the Spanish minister and the Elector 
©f Bavaria protested against this step, the immediate 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



229 



pressure of necessity finally overcame every other con- 
Sation, and the fiiends of the duke were empowered 
to consuTt'him on the subject, and to hold out the pros- 

■nect of his restoration. -, • .i i^ ^^.'o 

^ Informed of all that was transacted m the Emperoi s 
cabinet to his advantage, Wallenstein possessed sufiicient 
self-command to conceal his inward trmmph and to 
assume the mask of indifference. The moment of ven- 
geance was at last come, and his proud heart exulted m 
the prospect of repaying with interest the injuries of tne 
Frnperor With artful eloquence he expatiated upon the 
happy tranquillity of a private station, which had blessed 
S since his retirement from a political stage. Too 
lono-, he said, had he tasted the pleasures of ease and in- 
dependence to sacrifice to the vain phantom of glory the 
uncertain favor of princes. All his desire of power and 
dSction were extinct: tranquillity and repose wei-e 
now the sole obiect of his wishes. The better to conceal 
his real impatieice, he declined the Emperor s .nvnation 
to the court, but at the same time, to facilitate the nego 
tiations, came to Znaim, in Moravia. ..-.^ to ^e 

At first it was proposed to limit the authoiity to De 
enlisted to him, bV tL presence of a supenor, m^ 
hv this expedient to silence the objections of the Jilector 
of Bavaria The imperial deputies, Questenberg and 
Werdenber;, who! as old friends of the duke had been 
euiplovedTn this delicate mission, were instructed to pro- 
3 that the Kin- of Hungary should remam with the 
Lmv and learn he art of wlir under Wallenstem. Bu 
?™very mention of his name threatened to put a penod 
to the whole negotiation. " No ! never," exclaimed Wal- 
lens eim « will I submit to a colleague m my oAice No 
--not even if it were God himself with whom I should 
Tave to share my command." But even when j, o 
noxious point was given up P^'^^^^^/Sen^l^^^^ 
Emperor's minister and favorite, who had always ^^f" 
the steady friend and zealous champion of ^ . ?T' 
and was therefore expressly sent to him, exhausted his 
l"cet vain to o^erco'me the P-tended - uct-ce 
r,f tVic duke "The Emperor," he admitted, had, m 
WensteS; thrown awaf the most costly jewel m h« 



230 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

crown : but unwillingly and compulsorily only had he 
taken this step, which he had since deeply repented of; 
while his esteem for the duke had remained unaltered, his 
favor for him undiminished. Of these sentiments he now 
gave the most decisive proof, by reposing unlimited con- 
fidence in his fidelity and capacity to repair the mistakes 
of his predecessors, and to change the whole aspect of 
affairs. It would be great and noble to sacrifice his just 
indignation to the good of his country; dignified and 
worthy of him to refute the evil calumny of his enemies 
by the double warmth of his zeal. This victory over 
himself," concluded the prince, " would crown his other 
unparalleled services to the empire, and render him the 
greatest man of his age." 

These humiliating confessions, and flattering assurances, 
seemed at last to disarm the anger of the duke ; but not 
before he had disburdened his heart of his reproaches 
against the Emperor, pompously dwelt upon his own ser- 
vices, and humbled to the utmost the monarch who 
solicited his assistance, did he condescend to listen to the 
attractive proposals of the minister. As if he yielded 
entirely to the force of their arguments, he condescended 
with a haughty reluctance to that which was the most 
ardent wish of his heart ; and deigned to favor the am- 
bassadors with a ray of hope. But far from putting an 
end to the Emperor's embarrassments, by giving at once 
a full and unconditional consent, he only acceded to a 
part of his demands, that he might exalt the value of that 
which still remained, and was of most importance. He 
accepted the command, but only for three months ; merely 
for the purpose of raising, but not of leading an army. 
He wished only to show his power and ability in its 
organization, and to display before the eyes of the Em- 
peror the greatness of that assistance which he still 
retained in his hands. Convinced that an army raised by 
his name alone would, if deprived of its creator, soon 
sink again into nothing, he intended it to serve only as a 
decoy to draw more important concessions from his mas- 
ter. And yet Ferdinand congratulated himself, even in 
having gained so much as he had. 

Wallenstein did not long delay to fulfil those promises 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 231 

which all Germany regarded as chimerical, and which 
Gustavus Adolphus had considered as extravagant. But 
the foundation for the present enterprise had been long 
laid, and he now only put in motion the machinery which 
many years had been prepared for the purpose. Scarcely 
had the news spread of Wallenstein's levies, when, from 
every quarter of the Austrian monarchy, crowds of 
soldiers repaired to ti-y their fortunes under this expe- 
rienced general. Many, who had before fought under 
his standards, had been admiring eye-witnesses of his 
great actions, and experienced his magnanimity, came 
forward from their retirement to share with him a 
second time both booty and glory. The greatness of the 
pay he promised attracted thousands, and the plentiful 
supplies the soldier was likely to enjoy at the cost of 
the peasant was to the latter an irresistible inducement to 
embrace the military life at once, rather than be the 
victim of its oppression. All the Austrian provinces 
were compelled to assist in the equipment. No class 
was exempt from taxation — no dignity or privilege from 
capitation. The Spanish court, as well as the King of 
Hungary, agreed to contribute a considerable sum. ^ The 
ministers made large presents, while Wallenstein himself 
advanced two hundred thousand dollars from his own 
income to hasten the armament. The poorer officers he 
supported out of his own revenues; and, by his own 
example, by brilliant promotions, and still more brilliant 
promises, he induced all who were able to raise troops 
at their own expense. Whoever raised a corps at his 
own cost was to be its commander. In the appointment 
of officers, religion made no difference. Riches, bravery, 
and experience were more regarded than creed. By 
this uniform treatment of different religious sects, and 
still more by his express declaration, that his present levy 
had nothing to do with religion, the Protestant subjects 
of the empire were tranquillized, and reconciled to bear 
their share of the public burdens. The duke, at the 
same time, did not omit to treat, in his own name, with 
foreign states for men and money. He prevailed on the 
Duke of Lorraine, a second time, to espouse the cause of 
the Emperor. Poland was urged to supply him with 



232 THE TiriRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Cossacks, and Italy with warlike necessaries. Before the 
three months were expired the army, which was assembled 
in Moravia, amounted to no less than forty thousand men, 
chiefly drawn from the unconquered parts of Bohemia, 
from Moravia, Silesia, and the German provinces of the 
House of Austria. What to every one had appeared 
impracticable, Wallenstein, to the astonishment of all 
Europe, had in a short time effected. The charm of his 
name, his treasures, and his genius had assembled 
thousands in arms, where before Austria had only looked 
for hundreds. Furnished, even to superfluity, with all 
necessaries, commanded by experienced officers, and 
inflamed by enthusiasm which assured itself of victory, 
this newly-created army only awaited the signal of their 
leader to show themselves, by the bravery of their deeds, 
worthy of his choice. 

The duke had fulfilled his promise, and the troops 
were ready to take the field ; he then retired, and left to 
the Emperor to choose a commander. But it would 
have been as easy to raise a second army like the first as 
to find any other commander for it than Wallenstein. 
This promising army, the last hope of the Emperor, was 
nothing but an illusion as soon as the charm was dissolved 
which had called it into existence ; by Wallenstein it had 
been raised, and without him it sank like a creation of 
magic into its original nothingness. Its officers were 
either bound to him as his debtors, or, as his creditors, 
closely connected with his interests, and the preservation 
of his power. The regiments he had entrusted to his 
own relations, creatures, and favorites. He, and he 
alone, could discharge to the troops the extravagant 
promises by which they had been lured into his service. 
His pledged word was the only security on which their 
bold expectations rested ; a blind reliance on his omnipo- 
tence, the only tie which linked together in one common 
life and soul the various impulses of their zeal. There 
was an end of the good fortune of each individual if he 
retired, who alone was the voucher of its fulfilment. 

However little Wallenstein was serious in his refusal, 
he successfully employed tliis means to terrify the Em- 
peror into consenting to his extravagant conditions. The 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 233 

progress of the enemy every day increased the pressure 
of the Emperor's difficulties, while the remedy was also 
close at hand; a word from him might terminate the 
general embarrassment. Prince Eggenberg at length 
received orders, for the third and last time, at any cost 
and sacrifice, to induce his friend, Wallenstein, to accept 
the command. 

He found him at Znaim, in Moravia, pompously sur- 
rounded by tlie troops, the possession of which he made 
the Emperor so earnestly to long for. As a suppliant did 
the haughty subject receive the deputy of his sovereign. 
"He never could trust," he said, "to a restoration to 
command, which lie owed to the Emperor's necessities, 
and not to his sense of justice. He was now courted 
because the danger had reached its height, and safety was 
hoped for from his arm only ; but his successful services 
would soon cause the servant to be forgotten, and the 
return of security would bring back renewed ingratitude. 
If he deceived the expectations formed of him, his long- 
earned renown would be forfeited ; even if he fulfilled 
them, his repose and happiness must be sacrificed. Soon 
would envy be excited anew, and the dependent monarch 
would not hesitate a second time to make an offering of 
convenience to a servant whom he could now dispense 
with. Better for him at once, and voluntarily, to resign 
a post from which sooner or later the intrigues of his 
enemies woidd expel him. Security and content were to 
be found in the bosom of private life; and nothing but 
the wish to oblige the Emperor liad induced him, reluc- 
tantly enough, to relinquish for a time his blissful re- 
pose." 

Tired of this long farce, the minister at last assumed a 
serious tone, and threatened the obstinate duke with the 
Emperor's resentment if he persisted in his refusal. 
"Low enough had the imperial dignity," he added, 
" stooped already ; and yet, instead of exciting his mag- 
nanimity by its condescension, had only flattered his pride 
and increased his obstinacy. If this sacrifice had been 
made in vain, he would not answer but that the suppli- 
ant might be^ converted into the sovereign, and that the 
monarch might not avenge his injured dignity on his 



234 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

rebellious subject. However greatly Ferdinana may 
have erred, the Emperor at leaet had a claim to obedi- 
ence; the man might be mistaken, but the monarch 
could not confess his error. If the Duke of Friedland 
had suffered by an unjust decree, he might yet be recom- 
pensed for all his losses ; the wound which it had itself 
inflicted the hand of Majesty might heal. If he asked 
security for his person and his dignities, the Emperor's 
equity would refuse him no reasonable demand. Majesty 
contemned, admitted not of any atonement ; disobedience 
to its commands cancelled the most brilliant services. 
The Emperor required his services, and as Emperor he 
demanded them. Whatever price Wallenstein might set 
uj)on them, tlie Emi^eror would readily agree to ; but he 
demanded obedience, or the weight of his indignation 
should crush the refractory servant." 

Wallenstein, whose extensive possessions within the 
Austrian monarchy were momentarily exi^osed to the 
power of the Emperor, was keenly sensible that this was 
no idle threat ; yet it was not fear that at last overcame 
his affected reluctance. This imperious tone of itself 
was to his mind a plain proof of the weakness and despair 
which dictated it, while the Emperor's readiness to yield 
all his demands convinced him that he had attained the 
summit of his wishes. He now made a show of yielding 
to the persuasions of Eggenberg ; and left him in order to 
write clown the conditions on which he accepted the com- 
mand. 

Not without apprehension did the minister receive tlie 
writing in which the i:)roudest of subjects had jDrescribed 
laws to the proudest of sovereigns. But however little 
confidence he had in the moderation of his friend, the 
extravagant contents of his writing surpassed even his 
worst expectations. Wallenstein required the uncon- 
trolled command over all the German armies of Austria 
and Sixain, with unlimited powers to reward and punisli. 
Neither the King of Hungary, nor the Emperor himself, 
were to appear in the army, still less to exercise any act 
of authority over it. No commission in tlie army, no pen- 
sion or letter of grace, was to be granted by the Etn]ieror 
without Wallenstein's approval. All the conquests and 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 235 

confiscations that should take place were to be placed 
entirely at Wallenstein's disposal, to the exclusion of 
every other tribunal. For his ordinary pay, an imperial 
hereditary estate was to be assigned him, with another of 
the conquered estates within the empire for his extraordi- 
nary expenses. Every Austrian province was to be 
opened to him if he required it in case of retreat. He 
farther demanded the assurance of the possession of the 
Duchy of Mecklenburg, in the event of a future peace ; 
and a formal and timely intimation, if it should be 
deemed necessary a second time to deprive him of the 
command. 

In vain the minister entreated him to moderate his 
d-smands, which, if granted, would deprive the Emperor 
of all authority over his own troops, and make him 
absolutely dependent on his general. The value placed on 
his services had been too plainly manifested to prevent 
him dictating the price at which they were to be pur- 
chased. If the pressure of circumstances compelled the 
Emperor to grant these demands, it was more than a 
mere feeling of haughtiness and desire of revenge which 
induced the duke to make them. His plans of re- 
bellion were formed to their success, every one of the 
conditions for which Wallenstein stipulated in this treaty 
with the court was indispensable. Those plans required 
that the Emperor should be deprived of all authority in 
Germany, and be placed at the mercy of his general ; and 
this object would be attained the moment Ferdinand 
subscribed the required conditions. The use which Wal- 
lenstein intended to make of his army (widely different 
indeed from that for which it was entrusted to him), 
brooked not of a divided power, and still less of an 
authority superior to his own. To be the sole master of 
the will of his troops, he must also be the sole master of 
their destinies; insensibly to supplant his sovereign, and 
to transfer permanently to his own person the rights of 
sovereignty, which were only lent to him for a time by a 
higher authority, he must cautiously keep the latter out 
of tlie view of the army. Hence his obstinate refusal to 
allow any prince of the house of Austria to be present 
With the army. The liberty of free disposal of all the 



236 THE THIRTY YEARS ' WAR. 

conquered and confiscated estates in the emiaire would 
also afford him fearful means of purchasing dependents 
and instruments of his plans, and of acting the dictator in 
Germany more absolutely than ever any emperor did in 
time of peace. By the right to use any of the Austrian 
provinces as a place of refuge, in case of need, he had full 
power to hold the Emperor a prisoner by means of his 
own forces, and within his own dominions ; to exhaust the 
strength and resources of these countries, and to under- 
mine the power of Austria in its very foundation. 

Whatever might be the issue he had equally secured 
his own advantage by the conditions he had extorted 
from the Emperor. If circumstances proved favorable to 
his daring project, this treaty with the Emperor facili- 
tated its execution ; if, on the contrary, the course of 
things ran counter to it, it would at least afford him a 
brilliant compensation for the failure of his plans. But 
how could he consider an agreement valid which was 
extorted from his sovereign and based upon treason '? 
How could he hoj^e to blind the Emperor by a written 
agreement, in the face of a law which condemned to 
death every one who should have the presumption to 
imi^ose conditions upon him? But this criminal was the 
most indispensable man in the empire, and Ferdinand, 
well jDractised in dissimulation, granted him for the 
j^resent all he required. 

At last then the imperial army had found a com- 
mander-in-chief worthy of the name. Every other au- 
thority in the army, even that of the Emperor himself, 
ceased from the moment Wallenstein assumed the com- 
mander's baton, and every act was invalid which did not 
proceed from him. From the banks of the Danube to 
tliose of the Weser and the Oder, Avas felt the life-giving 
dawning of this new star ; a new spirit seemed to inspire 
the troops of the Emperor, a new epoch of the war began. 
The Papists form fresh hopes, the Protestant beholds 
with anxiety the changed course of affairs. 

The greater the price at which the services of the new 
general had been purchased, the greater justly Avere tlie 
expectations from those which the court of the Emperor 
entertained. But the duke was in no hurry to fulfil 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 237 

these expectations. Already in the vicinity of Bohemia, 
and at the head of a formidable force, he had but to 
show himself there in order to overj)ower the exhausted 
force of the Saxons, and brilliantly to commence his new 
career by the reconquest of that kingdom. But, con- 
tented with harassing the enemy with indecisive skir- 
mishes of his Croats, he abandoned the best part of that 
kingdom to be jDlundered, and moved calmly forward in 
pursuit of his own selfish plans. His design was, not to 
conquer the Saxons, but to unite with them. Exclusively 
occupied with this important object, he remained inactive 
in the hope of conquering more surely by means of nego- 
tiation. He left no expedient untried to detach this 
prince from the Swedish alliance ; and Ferdinand himself, 
ever inclined to an accommodation with this prince, 
approved of this proceeding. But the great debt which 
Saxony owed to Sweden was as yet too freshly remem- 
bered to allow of such an act of perfidy ; and even had 
the Elector been disposed to yield to the temptation, the 
equivocal character of Wallenstein, and the bad character 
of Austrian policy, precluded any reliance in the integrity 
of its promises. Notorious already as a treacherous 
statesman, he met not with faith upon the very occasion 
when perhaps he intended to act honestly, and, more- 
over, was denied, by circumstances, the opportunity of 
proving the sincerity of his intentions by the disclosure 
of his real motives. 

He therefore unwillingly resolved to extort by force 
of arms what he could not obtain by negotiation. Sud- 
denly assembling his troops, he appeared before Prague 
ere the Saxons had time to advance to its relief. After 
a short resistance the treachery of some CajDuchins opens 
the gates to one of his regiments ; and the garrison, who 
had taken refuge in the citadel, soon laid down their 
arms upon disgraceful conditions. Master of the capital, 
he hoped to carry on more successfully his negotiations 
at the Saxon court ; but even while he was renewing his 
proposals to Arnheim, he did not hesitate to give them 
weight by striking a decisive blow. He hastened to 
seize the narrow passes between Aussig and Pirna, with 
9, view of cutting off tlie retreat of the Saxons into theil 



238 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

own country ; but the rapidity of Arnheim's operations 
fortunately extricated them from the danger. After the 
retreat of this general, Egra and Leutmeritz, the last 
strongholds of the Saxons, surrendered to the con- 
queror, and the whole kingdom was restored to its legiti- 
mate sovereign in less time than it had been lost. 

Wallenstein, less occupied with the interests of his 
master than with the furtherance of his own plans, now 
purposed to carry the war into Saxony, and by ravaging 
his territories compel the Elector to enter into a private 
treaty with the Emperor, or rather with himself. But, 
however little accustomed he was to make his will bend 
to circumstances, he now perceived the necessity of post- 
poning his favorite scheme for a time to a more pressing 
emei'gency. While he was driving the Saxons from 
Bohemia, Gustavus Adolphus had been gaining the victo- 
ries, already detailed, on the Rhine and Danube, and 
carried the war through Franconia and Swabia to the 
frontiers of Bavaria. Maximilian, defeated on the Lech, 
and deprived by death of Count Tilly, his best support, 
urgently solicited the Emperor to send with all speed the 
Duke of Friedland to his assistance, from Bohemia, and 
by the defence of Bavaria to avert the danger from 
Austria itself. He also made the same request of Wal- 
lenstein, and entreated him, till he could himself come 
with the main force, to despatch in the meantime a few 
regiments to his aid. Ferdinand seconded the request 
with all his influence, and one messenger after another 
was sent to Wallenstein urging him to move towards the 
Danube. 

It now appeared how completely the Emperor had sacri- 
ficed his authority in surrendering to another the supreme 
command of his troops. Indifferent to Maximilian's en- 
treaties, and deaf to the Emperor's repeated commands, 
Wallenstein remained inactive in Bohemia and aban- 
doned the Elector to his fate. The remembrance of the 
evil service which Maximilian had rendered him with the 
Emperor at the Diet at Ratisbon was deeply engraved 
on the implacable mind of the duke, and the Elector's 
late attempts to prevent his reinstatement were no secret 
to him. The moment of avenging this affront had now 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 239 

arrived, and Maximilian was doomed to pay dearly for 
his folly in provoking the most revengeful of men. Wal- 
lenstein maintained that Bohemia ought not to be left 
exposed, and that Austria could not be better protected 
than by allowing the Swedish army to waste its strength 
before the Bavarian fortress. Thus, by the arm of the 
Swedes, he chastised his enemy ; and, while one place 
after another fell into their hands, he allowed the Elector 
vainly to await his arrival in Ratisbon. It was only 
when the complete subjugation of Bohemia left him 
withoiit excuse, and the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus 
in Bavaria threatened Austria itself, that he yielded to 
the pressing entreaties of the Elector and the Emperor, 
and determined to effect the long-expected union with 
the former; an event, which, according to the general 
anticipation of the Roman Catholics, would decide the 
fate of the campaign. 

Gustavus Adolphus, too weak in numbers to cope even 
with Wallenstein's force alone, naturally dreaded the 
junction of such powerful armies; and the little energy 
he used to prevent it was the occasion of great surprise. 
Apparently he reckoned too much on the hatred which 
alienated the leaders, and seemed to render their effectual 
co-operation improbable. When the event contradicted 
his views it was too late to repair his error. On the first 
certain intelligence he received of their designs he 
hastened to the Upper Palatinate for the purpose of inter- 
cepting the Elector, but the latter had already arrived 
there, and the junction had been effected at Egra. 

This frontier town had been chosen by Wallenstein 
for the scene of his triumph over his proud rival. Not 
content with having seen him, as it were, a suppliant at 
his feet, he imposed upon him the hard condition of leav- 
ing his territories in his rear exposed to the enemy, and 
declaring by this long march to meet him, the necessity 
and distress to which he was reduced. Even to this 
humiliation the haughty prince patiently submitted. It 
had cost him a severe struggle to ask for protection of 
the man who, if his own wishes had been consulted, 
would never, have had the power of granting it; but 
having once made up his mind to it, he was ready to bear 



240 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

all the annoyances which were inseparable from that 
resolve, and sufficiently master of himself to put up with 
petty grievances when an important end was in view. 

But whatever pains it had cost to effect this junction, 
it was equally difficult to settle the conditions on which 
it was to be maintained. The united army must be 
placed under the command of one individual, if any 
object was to be gained by the union, and each general 
was equally averse to yield to the superior authority of 
the other. If Maximilian rested his claim on his electoral 
dignity, the nobleness of his descent, and his influence in 
the empire, Wallenstein's military renown and the un- 
limited command conferred on him by the Emperor, 
gave an equally strong title to it. If it was deeply 
humiliating to the pride of the former to serve under an 
imperial subject, the idea of imposing laws on so imperi- 
ous a spirit flattered in the same degree the haughtiness 
of Wallenstein. An obstinate dispute ensued, which, 
however, terminated in a mutual compromise to Wallen- 
stein's advantage. To him was assigned the unlimited 
command of both armies, particularly in battle, while the 
Elector was deprived of all power of altering the order 
of battle, or even the route of the army. He retained 
only the bare right of punishing and rewarding his own 
troops, and the free use of these when not acting in con- 
junction with the Imperialists. 

After these preliminaries were settled the two generals 
at last ventured upon an interview ; but not until they 
had mutually promised to bury the past in oblivion, and 
all the outward formalities of a reconciliation had been 
settled. According to agreement, they publicly embraced 
in the sight of their troops, and made mutual professions 
of friendship, while in reality the hearts of both were 
overflowing with malice. Maximilian, well versed in 
dissimulation, had sufficient command over himself not 
to betray in a single feature his real feelings ; but a 
malicious triumph sparkled in the eyes of Wallenstein, 
and the constraint which was visible in all his movements 
betrayed the violence of the emotion which overpowered 
his proud soul. 

The combined Imperial and Bavarian armies amounted 



THE THIKTY YEARS' WAR. 241 

to nearly sixty thousand men, chiefly veterans. Before this 
force the King of Sweden was not in a condition to keep 
the field. As his attempt to jDrevent their junction had 
failed, he commenced a rapid retreat into Franconia, and 
awaited there for some decisive movement on the part of 
the enemy in order to form his own plans. The position 
of the combined ai'mies between the frontiers of Saxony 
and Bavaria left it for some time doubtful whether they 
would remove the war into the former or endeavor to 
drive the Swedes from the Danube and deliver Bavaria. 
Saxony had been stripped of troops by Arnheim, who 
was pursuing his conquests in Silesia, not without a secret 
design, it was generally supposed, of favoring the en- 
trance of the Duke of Friedland into that electorate, 
and of thus driving the irresolute John George into peace 
with the Emperor. Gustavus Adolphus himself, fully 
persuaded that Wallenstein's views were directed against 
Saxony, hastily despatched a strong reinforcement to the 
assistance of his confederate, with the intention, as soon 
as circumstances would allow, of following with the 
main body. But the movements of Wallenstein's army 
soon led him to suspect that he himself was the object of 
attack; and the duke's march through the Upper Pala- 
tinate placed the matter beyond a doubt. The question 
now was, how to provide for his own security, and the 
prize was no longer his supremacy, but his very exist- 
ence. His fertile genius must now supply the means, not 
of conquest, but of preservation. The approach of the 
enemy had surprised him before he had time to concen- 
trate his troops, which were scattered all over Germany, 
or to sixmmon his allies to his aid. Too weak to meet the 
enemy in the field, he had no choice left but either to 
throw himself into Nureniberg, and run the risk of being 
shut up in its walls, or to sacrifice that city and await 
a reinforcement under the cannon of Donauwerth. In- 
different to danger or difficulty, while he obeyed the call 
of humanity or honor, he chose the first without hesita- 
tion, firmly resolved to bury himself with his whole army 
under the ruins of Nuremberg rather than to purchase 
his own safety by the sacrifice of his confederates. 

Measures were immediately taken to surround the citv 



242 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

and suburbs with redoubts, and to form an intrenched 
camp. Several thousand workmen immediately com- 
menced this extensive work, and an heroic determination 
to hazard life and property in the common cause ani- 
mated the inhabitants of Nuremberg. A trench eight 
feet deep and twelve broad surrounded the whole forti- 
fication; the lines were defended by redoubts and bat- 
teries, the gates by half-moons. The river Pegnitz, 
which flows through Nuremberg, divided the whole camp 
into two semicircles, whose communication was secured 
by several bridges. About three hundred pieces of can- 
non defended the town-walls and the intrenchments. 
The peasantry from the neighboring villages, and the 
inhabitants of Nuremberg, assisted the Swedish soldiers 
so zealously that on the seventh day the army was 
able to enter the camp, and in a fortnight this great work 
was completed. 

While these operations were carried on without the 
walls, the magistrates of Nuremberg were busily occupied 
in filling the magazines with jirovisions and ammunition 
for a long siege. Measures were taken, at the same time, 
to secure the health of the inhabitants, which was likely 
to be endangered by the conflux of so many people; 
cleanliness was enforced by the strictest regulations. In 
order, if necessary, to support the king, the youth of the 
city were embodied and trained to arms, the militia of 
the town considerably reinforced, and a new regiment 
raised, consisting of four-and-twenty names, according to 
the letters of the alphabet. Gustavus had, in the mean- 
time, called to his assistance his allies, Duke William of 
Weimar and the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel ; and or- 
dered his generals on the Rhine, in Thuringia and Lower 
Saxony, to commence their march immediately, and join 
him with their troops in Nuremberg. His army, which 
was encamped within the lines, did not amount to more 
than sixteen thousand men, scarcely a third of the 
enemy. 

The Imperialists had, in the meantime, by slow marches, 
advanced to Neumark, where Wallenstein made a general 
review. At the sight of this formidable force he could 
not refrain from indulo;ino; in a childish boast : " In four 



THE THIRTY YEARS^ WAR. 243 

days," said he, « it will be shown whether I or the King 
of Sweden is to be master of the world." Yet, notwith- 
standing his superiority, he did nothing to fulfil his 
promise; and even let slip the opportunity of crushing 
his enemy, when the latter had the hardihood to leave his 
lines to meet him. " Battles enough have been fought," 
was his answer to those who advised him to attack the 
king, " it is now time to try another method." Wallen- 
stein's well-founded reputation required not any of those 
rash enterprises on which younger soldiers rush in hope 
of gaining a name. Satisfied that the enemy's despair 
would dearly sell a victory, while a defeat would irre- 
trievably ruin the Emperor's affairs, he resolved to wear 
out the ardor oi his opponent by a tedious blockade, and 
by thus depriving him of every opportunity of availing 
himself of his impetuous bravery, take from him the very 
advantage which had hitherto rendered him invincible. 
Without making any attack, therefore, he erected a 
strong fortified camp on the other side of the Pegnitz, and 
opposite Nuremberg; and, by this well-chosen position, 
cut off from the city and the camp of Gustavus all sup- 
plies from Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia. Thus he 
held in siege at once the city and the king, and flattered 
himself with the hope of slowly, but surely, wearing out 
by famine and pestilence the courage of his opponent 
whom he had no wish to encounter in the field. 

^ Little aware, however, of the resources and strength of 
his adversary, Wallenstein had not taken sufiicient precau- 
tions to avert from himself the fate he was designing for 
others. From the whole of the neighboring country, 
tlie peasantry had fled with their property; and what 
little provision remained must be obstinately contested 
U'ith the Swedes. The king spared the magazines within 
the town, as long as it was possible to provision his army 
from without ; and these forays produced constant skir- 
mishes between the Croats and the Swedish cavalry, of 
which the surrounding country exhibited the most melan- 
choly traces. The necessaries of life must be obtained 
sword in hand ; and the foraging parties could not ven- 
ture out without a numerous escort. And when this 
supply failed, the town opened its magazines to the 



244 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

king, but Wallenstein had to support his troops from 
a distance. A large convoy from Bavaria was on its way 
to him with an escort of a thousand men. Gustavus 
Adolphus having received intelligence of its approach, 
immediately sent out a regiment of cavalry to intercept 
it; and the darkness of the night favored the enterprise. 
The whole convoy, with the town in which it was, fell 
into the hands of the Swedes ; the imperial escort Avas 
cut to pieces ; about twelve hundred cattle carried off ; 
and a thousand wagons loaded with bread, which coidd 
not be brought away, were set on fire. Seven regiments, 
which Wallenstein had sent forward to Altdorp to cover 
the entrance of the long and anxiously expected convoy, 
were attacked by the king, who had, in like manner, 
advanced to cover the retreat of his cavalry, and routed 
after an obstinate action, being driven back into the 
imperial camp with the loss of four hundred men. So 
many checks and difficulties, and so firm and unexpected 
a resistance on the part of the king, made the Duke of 
Friedland repent that he had declined to hazard a battle. 
The strength of the Swedish camp rendered an attack 
impracticable ; and the armed youth of Nuremberg served 
the king as a nursery from which he could supply his 
loss of troops. The want of provisions, which began to be 
felt in the imperial camp as strongly as in the Swedish, 
rendered it uncertain which party would be first com- 
pelled to give way. 

Fifteen days had the two armies now remained in view 
of each other, equally defended by inaccessible intrench- 
ments, without attempting anything more than slight 
attacks and unimportant skirmishes. On both sides in- 
fectious diseases, the natural consequence of bad food 
and a crowded population, had occasioned a greater loss 
than the sword. And this evil daily increased. But at 
length the long-expected succors arrived in the Swedish 
camp ; and by this strong reinforcement the king was now 
enabled to obey the dictates of his native cournge, and to 
break the chains which had hitherto fettered him. 

In obedience to his requisitions, the Duke of Weimar 
had hastily drawn together a corps from the garrisons m 
Lower Saxony and Thuringia, which, at Schweinfurt, in 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 245 

Franconia, was joined by four Saxon regiments, and at 
Kitzingen by the corps of the Rhine, which the Land- 
grave of Hesse and the Palatine of Birkenfeld desjDatched 
to the relief of the king. The chancellor, Oxenstiern, 
undertook to lead this force to its destination. After 
being joined at Windsheim by the Duke of Weimar 
hims'elf, and the Swedish general, Banner, he advanced 
by rapid marches to Bruck and Eltersdorf, where he 
passed the Rednitz, and reached the Swedish camp in 
safety. This reinforcement amounted to nearly fifty 
thousand men, and was attended by a train of sixty 
pieces of cannon, and four thousand baggage wagons. 
Gustavus now saw himself at the head of an army of 
nearly seventy thousand strong, without reckoning the 
militia of Nuremberg, which in case of necessity, could 
bring into the field about thirty thousand fighting men ; 
a formidable force, opposed to another not less formi- 
dable. The war seemed at length compressed to the point 
of a single battle, which was to decide its fearful issue. 
"With divided sympathies, Europe looked with anxiety 
to this scene, where the whole strength of the two con- 
tending parties was fearfully drawn, as it were, to a 
focus. 

If, before the arrival of the Swedish succors, a want 
of provisions had been felt, the evil was now fearfully 
increased to a dreadful height in both camps, for Wallen- 
stein had also received reinforcements from Bavaria. 
Besides the one hundred and twenty thousand men con- 
fronted to each othei', and more than fifty thousand 
horses in the two armies, and besides the inhabitants of 
Nuremberg, whose number far exceeded the Swedish 
army, there were in the camp of Wallenstein about 
fifteen thousand women, with as many drivers, and 
nearly the same number in that of the Swedes. The 
custom of the time permitted the soldier to carry his 
family with him to the field. A number of prostitutes 
followed the Imperialists; while, with the view of pre- 
venting such excesses, Gustavus' care for the morals of 
his soldiers promoted marriages. For the rising genera- 
tion who had this camp for their home and country, 
regular military schools were established, which educated 



^46 THE tSiety years* WAit. 

a race of excellent warriors, by which means the army- 
might in a manner recruit itself in the course of a long 
campaign. No wonder, then, if these wandering nations 
exhausted every territory in which they encamped, and 
by their immense consumption raised the necessaries of 
life to an exorbitant price. All the mills of Nuremberg 
were insufficient to grind the corn required for each day ; 
and fifteen thousand pounds of bread, which were daily 
delivered by the town into the Swedish camp, excited 
without allaying the hunger of the soldiers. The laudable 
exertions of the magistrates of Nuremberg could not 
prevent the greater part of the horses from dying for 
want of forage, while the increasing mortality in the 
camp consigned more than a hundred men daily to the 
grave. 

To put an end to these disti-esses, Gustavus Adolphus, 
relying on his numerical superiority, left his lines on the 
twenty-fifth day, forming before the enemy in order of 
battle, while he cannonaded the duke's camp from three bat- 
teries erected on the side of the Rednitz. But the duke 
remained immovable in his intrenchments and contented 
himself with answering this challenge by a distant fire of 
cannon and musketry. His plan was to wear out the 
king by his inactivity, and by the force of famine to over- 
come his resolute determination ; and neither the remon- 
strances of Maximilian, and the impatience of his army, 
nor the ridicule of his opponent, could shake his purpose. 
Gustavus, deceived in his hope of forcing a battle, and 
compelled by his increasing necessities, now attempted 
impossibilities, and resolved to storm a position which 
art and nature had combined to render impregnable. 

Entrusting his own camp to the militia of Nuremberg 
on the fifty-eighth day of his encampment (the festival 
of St. Bartholomew), he advanced in full order of battle, 
and passing the Rednitz at Furth, easily drove the enemy's 
outposts before him. The main army of the Imperialists 
was posted on the steep heights between the Biber and 
the Rednitz, called the Old Fortress and Altenberg; 
while the camp itself, commanded by these eminences, 
spread out immeasurably along the plain. On these 
heights the whole of the artillery was placed. Deep 



tHE THIRTY YEARS' WAIt. 24*? 

trenches surrounded inaccessible redoubts, while thick 
barricades, with pointed palisades, defended the ap- 
proaches to the heights, from the summits of which 
Wallenstein calmly and securely discharged the lightnings 
of his artillery from amid the dark thunder-clouds of 
smoke. A destructive fire of musketry was maintained 
behind the breastworks, and a hundred pieces of cannon 
threatened the desperate assailant with certain destruc- 
tion. Against this dangerous post Gustavus now di- 
rected his attack ; five hundred musketeers, supported 
by a few infantry (for a greater number could not act 
in the narrow space), enjoyed the unenvied privilege of 
first throwing themselves into the open jaws of death. 
The assault was furious, the resistance obstinate. Ex- 
posed to the whole fire of the enemy's artillery, and 
infuriate by the prospect of inevitable death, these deter- 
mined warriors rushed forward to storm the heights ; 
which, in an instant, converted into a flaming volcano, 
discharged on them a shower of shot. At the same 
moment, the heavy cavalry rushed forward into the 
openings which the artillery had made in the close ranks 
of the assailants, and divided them; till the intrepid 
band, conquered by the strength of nature and of man, 
took to flight, leaving a hundred dead upon the field. 
To Germans had Gustavus yielded this post of honor. 
Exasperated at their retreat, he now led on his Finlanders 
to the attack, thinking, by their northern courage, to 
shame the cowardice of the Germans. But they, also, 
after a similar hot reception, yielded to the superiority of 
the enemy ; and a third regiment succeeded them to 
experience the same fate. This was replaced by a fourth, 
a fifth, and a sixth ; so that, during a ten hour's action 
every regiment was brought to the attack to retire with 
bloody loss from the contest. A thousand mangled 
bodies covered the field ; yet Gustavus undauntedly 
maintained the attack, and Wallenstein held his position 
unshaken. 

In the meantime a sharp contest had taken place be- 
tween the imperial cavalry and the left wing of the 
Swedes, which was posted in a thicket on the Rednitz, 
with varying success, but with equal intrepidity and loss 



248 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

on both sides. The Duke of Friedland and Prince 
Bernard of Weimar had each a horse shot under them ; 
the king himself had the sole of his boot carried off by a 
cannon ball. The combat was maintained with undi- 
minished obstinacy, till the approach of night separated 
the combatants. But the Swedes had advanced too far 
to retreat without hazard. While the king was seeking 
an officer to convey to the regiments the order to retreat, 
he met Colonel Hepburn, a brave Scotchman, whose 
native courage alone had drawn him from the camp to 
share in the dangers of the day. Offended with the king 
for having not long before preferred a younger officer 
for some post of danger, he had rashly vowed never 
again to draw his sword for the king. To him Gustavus 
now addressed himself, praising his courage, and re- 
questing him to order the regiments to retreat. " Sire," 
replied the brave soldier, " it is the only service I cannot 
refuse to your Majesty ; for it is a hazardous one," — and 
immediately hastened to carry the command. One of 
the heights above the old fortress had, in the heat of the 
action, been carried by the Duke of Weimar. It com- 
manded the hills and the whole camp. But the heavy 
rain which fell during the night rendered it impossible 
to draw up the cannon ; and this post, which had been 
gained with so much bloodshed, was also voluntarily aban- 
doned Diffident of fortune, which forsook him on this de- 
cisive day, the king did not venture the following morning 
to renew the attack with his exhausted troops ; and van- 
quished for the first time, even because he was not victor, 
he led back his troops over the Rednitz. Two thousand 
dead which he left behind him on the field testified to 
the extent of his loss ; and the Duke of Friedland re- 
mained unconquered within his lines. 

For fourteen days after this action the two armies still 
continued in front of each other, each in the hope that 
the other would be the first to give way. Every day 
reduced their provisions, and as scarcity became greater, 
the excesses of the soldiers, rendered furious, exercised 
the wildest outi'ages on the peasantry. The increasmg 
distress broke up all discipline and order in the Swedish 
camp ; and the German regiments, in particular, distin- 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 249 

guished themselves for the ravages they practised indis- 
criminately on friend and foe. The weak hand of a single 
individual could not check excesses encouraged by the 
silence, if not the actual example, of the inferior officers. 
These shameful breaches of discipline, on the maintenance 
of which he had hitherto justly prided himself, severely 
pained the king; and the vehemence with which he 
reproached the German officers for their negligence be- 
spoke the liveliness of his emotion. " It is you your- 
selves, Germans," said he, " that rob your native country 
and ruin your own confederates in the faith. As God is 
my judge, I abhor you, I loathe you; my heart sinks 
within me whenever I look upon you. Ye break my 
orders ; ye are the cause that the world curses me, that 
the tears of poverty follow me, that complaints ring in 
my ear — ' The king, our friend, does us more harm than 
even our worst enemies.' On your account I have 
stripped my own kingdom of its treasures, and spent 
upon you more than forty tons of gold ; * while from your 
German empire I have not received the least aid. I gave 
you a share of all that God had given to me; and had ye 
regarded my orders I would have gladly shared with you 
all my future acquisitions. Your want of discipline con- 
vinces me of your evil intentions, whatever cause I might 
otherwise have to applaud your bravery." 

Nuremberg had exerted itself, almost beyond its power, 
to subsist for eleven weeks the vast crowd which was 
comj^ressed within its boundaries ; but its means were at 
length exhausted, and the king's more numerous party 
was obliged to determine on a retreat. By the casualties 
of war and sickness Nuremberg had lost more than ten 
thousand of its inhabitants, and Gustavus Adolphus 
nearly twenty thousand of his soldiers. The fields 
around the city were trampled down, the villages lay in 
ashes, the plundered peasantry lay faint and dying on 
the highways ; foul odors infected the air, and bad food, 
the exhalations from so dense a population, and so many 
putrifying carcasses, together with the heat of the dog- 
days, produced a desolating pestilence which raged 
among men and beasts, and long after the retreat of both 

* A ton of gold in Sweden amoxints to one hundred thousand rix dollars, 



250 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

armies continued to load the country with misery and 
distress. Affected by the general distress, and despairing 
of conquering the steady determination of the Duke of 
Friedland, the king broke up his camp on the 8th Sep- 
tember, leaving in Nuremberg a sufficient garrison. He 
advanced in full order of battle before the enemy, who 
remained motionless, and did not attempt in the least to 
harass his retreat. His route lay by the Aisch and Wind- 
sheim towards Neustadt, where he halted five days to 
refresh his troops, and also to be near to Nuremberg in 
case the enemy should make an attempt upon the town. 
But Wallenstein, as exhausted as himself, had only 
awaited the retreat of the Swedes to commence his own. 
Five days afterwards he broke up his camp at Zirndorf, 
and set it on fire. A hundred columns of smoke, rising 
from all the burning villages in the neighborhood, an- 
nounced his retreat, and showed the city the fate it had 
escaped. His march, which was directed on Forchheim, 
was marked by the most frightful ravages ; but he was 
too far advanced to be overtaken by the king. The latter 
now divided his army, which the exhausted country was 
unable to support, and leaving one division to protect 
Franconia, with the other he prosecuted in person his 
conquests in Bavaria. 

In the meantime the imperial Bavarian army had 
marched into the Bishopric of Bamberg, where the Duke 
of Friedland a second time mustered his troops. He 
found this force, which so lately had amounted to sixty 
thousand men, diminished by the sword, desertion, and 
disease to about twenty-four thousand, and of these a 
fourth were Bavarians. Thus had the encampments 
before Nuremberg weakened both parties more than two 
great battles would have done, apparently without ad- 
vancing the termination of the war, or satisfying, by any 
decisive result, the expectations of Europe. The king's 
conquests in Bavaria, were, it is true, checked for a time 
by this diversion before Nuremberg, and Austria itself 
secured against the danger of immediate invasion ; but 
by the retreat of the king from that city, he was again 
left at full liberty to make Bavaria the seat of war. In- 
different towards the fate of that country, and weary of 



THE THIRTY YEARS" WAR. 



251 



the restraint which his union with the Elector imposed 
iipon him, the Duke of Friedland eagerly seized the oppor- 
tunity of separating from this burdensome associate, and 
prosecuting, with renewed earnestness, his favorite plans. 
Still adhering to his purpose of detaching Saxony from 
its Swedish alliance, he selected that country for his wm- 
ter quarters, hoping by his destructive presence to force 
the Elector the more readily into his views. 

No conjuncture could be more favorable for his designs. 
The Saxons had invaded Silesia, where, reinforced by 
troops from Brandenburg and Sweden, they had gamed 
several advantages over the Emperor's troops. Silesia 
would be saved by a diversion against the Elector m his 
own territories, and the attempt was the more easy as 
Saxony, left undefended during the war in Silesia, lay 
open on every side to attack. The pretext of rescuing 
from the enemy an hereditary dominion of Austria would 
silence the remonstrances of the Elector of Bavaria,^ and, 
under the mask of a patriotic zeal for the Emperor's in- 
terests, Maximilian might be sacrificed without much 
difficulty. By giving up the rich country of Bavaria to 
the Swedes he hoped to be left unmolested by them in 
his enterprise against Saxony, while the increasing cold- 
ness between Gustavus and the Saxon Court gave him 
little reason to apprehend any extraordinary zeal for the 
deliverance of John George. Thus a second time aban- 
doned by his artful protector, the Elector separated from 
Wallenstein at Bamberg, to protect his defenceless terri- 
tory with the small remains of his troops, while the im- 
perial army, under Wallenstein, directed its march 
through Beyreuth and Coburg towards the Thuringian 
Forest. 

An imperial general. Hoik, had previously been sent 
into Vogtland with six thousand men to waste this 
defenceless province with fire and sword; he was soon 
followed by Gallus, another of the duke's generals, and 
an equally faithful instrument of his inhuman orders. 
Finally, Pappenheim, too, was recalled from Lower Sax- 
ony, to reinforce the diminished army of the duke, and 
to complete the miseries of the devoted country. Ruined 
churches, villages in ashes, harvests wilfully destroyed,- 



252 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

families plundered, and murdered peasants marked the 
progress of these barbarians, under whose scourge the 
whole of Thuringia, Vogtland, and Meissen lay defence- 
less. Yet this was but the prelude to greater sufferings, 
with which Wallenstein himself, at the head of the main 
army, threatened Saxony. After having left behind him 
fearful monuments of his fury, in his march through 
Franconia and Thuringia, he arrived with his whole army 
in the Circle of Leipzig, and compelled the city, after a 
short resistance, to surrender. His design was to push on 
to Dresden, and by the conquest of the whole country, 
to prescribe laws to the Elector. He had already ap- 
proached the Mulda, threatening to overj^ower the Saxon 
army which had advanced as far as Torgau to meet him, 
when the King of Sweden's arrival at Erfurt gave an 
unexpected check to his operations. Placed between the 
Saxon and Swedish armies, which were likely to be far- 
ther reinforced by the troops of George, Duke of Lunen- 
burg, from Lower Saxony, he hastily retired upon Merse- 
berg, to form a junction there with Count Pappenheim, 
and to repel the further advance of the Swedes. 

Gustavus Adolphus had witnessed with great uneasi- 
ness the arts employed by Spain and Austria to detach 
his allies from him. The more important his alliance with 
Saxony the more anxiety the inconstant temper of John 
George caused him. Between himself and the Elector a 
sincere friendship could never subsist. A prince proud 
of his political importance, and accustomed to consider 
himself as the head of his party, could not see without 
annoyance the interference of a foreign power in the 
affairs of the Empire ; and nothing but the extreme 
danger of his dominions could overcome the aversion 
with which he had long witnessed the progress of this 
unwelcome intruder. The increasing influence of the 
king in Germany, his authority with the Protestant states, 
the unambiguous proofs which he gave of his ambitious 
views, which were of a character calculated to excite 
the jealousies of all the states of the Empire, aAvakened 
in the Elector's breast a thousand anxieties, which the 
imperial emissaries did not fail skilfully to keep alive and 
cherish. Every arbitrary step on the part of the king, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 253 

every demand, however reasonable, which he addressed 
to the princes of the Empire, was followed by bitter com- 
plaints from the Elector, which seemed to announce an 
approaching rupture. Even the generals of the two 
powers, whenever they were called upon to act in com- 
mon, manifested the same jealousy as divided their 
leaders. John George's natural aversion to war, and a 
lingering attachment to Austria, favored the efforts of 
Arnheim ; who, maintaining a constant correspondence 
with Wallenstein, labored incessantly to effect a private 
treaty between his master and the Emperor ; and if his 
representations were long disregarded, still the event 
proved that they were not altogether without effect. 

Gustavus Adolphus, naturally apprehensive of the con- 
sequences which the defection of so powerful an ally 
would produce on his future prospects in Germany, spared 
no pains to avert so pernicious an event ; and his remon- 
strances had hitherto had some effect upon the Elector. 
But the formidable power with which the Emperor sec- 
onded his seductive proposals, and the miseries which, in 
the case of hesitation, he threatened to accumulate upon 
Saxony, might at length overcome the resolution of the 
Elector should he be left exposed to the vengeance of his 
enemies ; while an indifference to the fate of so powerful 
a confederate would irreparably destroy the confidence of 
the other allies in their protector. This consideration 
induced the king a second time to yield to the pressing 
entreaties of the Elector, and to sacrifice his own brilliant 
prospects to the safety of this ally. He had already re- 
solved upon a second attack on Ingoldstadt; and the 
weakness of the Elector of Bavaria gave him hopes of 
soon forcing this exhausted enemy to accede to a neu- 
trality. An insurrection of the j^easantry in Upper 
Austria opened to him a passage into that country, and 
the capital might be in his possession before Wallenstein 
could have time to advance to its defence. All these 
views he now gave up for the sake of an ally who, neither 
by his services nor his fidelity, was worthy of the sacrifice ; 
who, on the pressing occasions of common good, had 
steadily adhered to his own selfish projects ; and who was 
important, not for the services he was expected to render, 



254 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

but merely for the injuries he had it in his power to in- 
flict. Is it possible, then, to refrain from indignation, 
when we know that in this expedition, undertaken for 
the benefit of such an ally, the great king was destined to 
terminate his career ? 

Rapidly assembling his troops in Franconia, he followed 
the route of Wallenstein through Thuringia, Duke Ber- 
nard of Weimar, who had been despatched to act against 
Pappenheim, joined the king at Armstadt, who now saw 
himself at the head of twenty thousand veterans. At 
Erfurt he took leave of his queen, who was not to behold 
him, save in his coffin, at Weissenfels. Their anxious 
adieus seemed to forbode an eternal separation. 

Pie reached ISTaumburg on the 1st November, 1632, 
before the corps, which the Duke of Friedland had de- 
spatched for that purpose, could make itself master of 
that place. The inhabitants of the surrounding country 
flocked in crowds to look upon the hero, the avenger, the 
great king, who, a year before, had first appeared in that 
quarter like a guardian angel. Shouts of joy everywhere 
attended his progress ; the people knelt before him and 
struggled for the honor of touching the sheath of his 
sword or the hem of his garment. The modest hero 
disliked this innocent tribute which a sincerely grateful 
and admiring multitude paid him. " Is it not," said he, 
" as if this people would make a God of me ? Our affairs 
prosper, indeed; but I fear the vengeance of Heaven will 
punish me for tliis presumption, and soon enough reveal 
to this deluded multitude my human weakness and mor- 
tality!" How amiable does Gustavus appear before us 
at this moment, when about to leave us forever ! Even 
in the plenitude of success he honors an avenging Ne- 
mesis, declines that homage which is due only to the Im- 
mortal, and strengthens his title to our tears the nearer 
the moment approaches that is to call them forth ! 

In the meantime the Duke of Friedland had deter- 
mined to advance to meet the king as far as Weissenfels, 
and, even at the hazard of a battle, to secure his winter- 
quarters in Saxony. His inactivity before Nuremberg 
had occasioned a suspicion that he was unwilling to 
measure his powers with tliose of the Hero of the North, 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 255 

and his hard-earned reputation would be at stake if a 
second time he should decline a battle. His present 
superiority in numbers, though much less than what it 
was at the beginning of the siege of Nuremberg, was still 
enough to give him hopes of victory if he could compel 
the king to give battle before his junction with the 
Saxons. But his present reliance was not so much in 
his numerical superiority as in the predictions of his 
astrologer, Seni, who had read in the stars that the good 
fortune of the Swedish monarch would decline in the 
month of November. Besides, between Naumburg and 
Weissenfels there was also a range of narrow defiles, 
formed by a long mountainous ridge and the river Saal, 
which ran at their foot, along which the Swedes could 
not advance without difiiculty, and which might with the 
assistance of a few troops be rendered almost impassable. 
If attacked there the king would have no choice but 
either to penetrate with great danger through the defiles, 
or commence a laborious retreat through Thuringia, and 
to exjDOse the greater part of his army to a march through 
a desert country deficient in every necessary for their 
support. But the rapidity with which Gustavus Adolphus 
had taken possession of Naumburg disappointed this 
plan, and it was now Wallenstein himself who awaited 
the attack. 

But in this expectation he was disappointed ; for the 
king, instead of advancing to meet him at Weissenfels, 
made preparations for intrenching himself near Naum- 
burg, with the intention of awaiting there the reinforce- 
ments which the Duke of Lunenburg was bringing up. 
Undecided whether to advance against the king through 
the narrow passes between Weissenfels and Naumburg, 
or to remain inactive in his camp, he called a council of 
war in order to have the opinion of his most experienced 
generals. None of these thought it prudent to attack the 
king in his advantageous position. On the other hand, 
the preparations which the latter made to fortify his 
camp plainly showed that it was not his intention soon 
to abandon it. But the aj^proach of winter rendered it 
impossible to prolong the campaign, and by a continued 
encampment to exhaust the strength of the army, alreadj' 



256 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

SO much in need of repose. All voices were in favor of 
immediately terminating the campaign ; and the more 
so as the important city of Cologne upon the Rhine was 
threatened by the Dutch, while the jjrogress of the enemy 
in Westphalia and the Lower Rhine called for effective 
reinforcements in that quarter. Wallen stein yielded to 
the weight of these arguments, and almost convinced that 
at this season he had no reason to apprehend an attack 
from the king, he put his troops into winter quarters, but 
so that, if necessary, they might be rapidly assembled. 
Count Pappenheim was despatched, with great part of the 
army, to the assistance of Cologne, with orders to take 
possession on his march of the fortress of Moritzburg, in 
the territory of Halle. Different corps took up their 
winter quarters in the neighboring towns, to watch on all 
sides the motions of the enemy. Count CoUoredo 
guarded the castle of Weissenfels, and Wallenstein him- 
self encamped with the remainder not far from Merse- 
burg, between Flotzgaben and the Saal, from whence he 
purposed to march to Leipzig, and to cut off the com- 
munication between the Saxons and the Swedish army. 

Scarcely had Gustavus Adolphus been informed of 
Pappenheim's departure when, suddenly breaking up his 
camp at Naumburg, he hastened with his whole force to 
attack the enemy, now weakened to one-half. He ad- 
vanced by rapid marches towards Weissenfels, fi-om 
whence the news of his arrival quickly reached the enemy, 
and greatly astonished the Duke of Friedland. But a 
speedy resolution was now necessary; and the measures 
of Wallenstein were soon taken. Though he had little 
more than twelve thousand men to oppose to the twenty 
thousand of the enemy, he might hope to maintain his 
ground until the return of Pappenheim, who could not 
have advanced farther than Halle, five miles distant. 
Messengers were hastily despatched to recall him, while 
Wallenstein moved forward into the wide plain between 
the Canal and Lutzen, where he awaited the king in full 
order of battle, and by this position cut off his commu- 
nication with Leipzig and the Saxon auxiliaries. 

Three cannon shots, fired by Count Colloredo from the 
Castle of Weissenfels, announced the king's approach; 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 257 

and at this concerted signal the light trooj^s of the Duke 
of Fi'iedland, under the command of the Croatian Gen- 
eral Isolani, moved forward to possess themselves of 
the villages lying upon the Rippach. Their weak 
resistance did not impede the advance of the enemy, 
who crossed the Rippach, near the village of that name, 
and formed in line below Lutzen, opposite the Imperialists. 
The high road which goes from Weissenfels to Leipzig is 
intersected between Lutzen and Markranstadt by the 
canal which extends from Zeitz to Merseburg, and unites 
the Elster with the Saal. On this canal rested the left 
wing of the Imperialists and the right of the King of 
Sweden; but so that the cavalry of both extended them- 
selves along the opposite side. To the northward, behind 
Lutzen, was Wallenstein's right wing, and to the south 
of that town was posted the left wing of the Swedes; 
both armies fronted the high road, which ran between 
them and divided their order of battle ; but the evening 
before the battle Wallenstein, to the great disadvantage 
of his opponent, had possessed himself of this highway, 
deepened the trenches which ran along its sides, and 
planted them with musketeers so as to make the crossing 
of it both difficult and dangerous. Behind these, again, 
was erected a battery of seven large pieces of cannon, to 
support the fire from the trenches ; and at the windmills, 
close behind Lutzen, fourteen smaller field-pieces were 
ranged on an eminence, from which they could sweep the 
greater part of the plain. The infantry, divided into no 
more than five unwieldy brigades, was drawn up at the 
distance of three hundred paces from the road, and the 
cavalry covered the flanks. All the baggage was sent 
to Leipzig, that it might not impede the movements of 
the army; and the ammunition-wagons alone remained, 
which were placed in rear of the line. To conceal the 
weakness of the Imperialists all the camp-followers and 
sutlei'S were mounted, and posted on the left wing, but 
only until Pappenheim's troops arrived. These arrange- 
ments were made during the darkness of the night ; and 
when the morning dawned all was ready for the reception 
of the enemy. 

On the evening of the same day Gustavus Adolphus 



258 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

appeared on the opposite plain, and formed his troops in 
the order of attack. His disposition was the same as 
that which had been so successful the year befoi'e at Leip- 
zig. Small squadrons of horse were interspersed among 
the divisions of the infantry, and troops of musketeers 
placed here and there among the cavalry. The army 
was ai-ranged in two lines, the canal on the right and in 
its rear, the high road in front, and the town on the left. 
In the centre the infantry was formed, under the com- 
mand of Count Brahe ; the cavalry on the wings ; the 
artillery in front. To the German hero, Bernard, Duke 
of Weimar, was entrusted the command of the German 
cavalry of the left wing ; while on the right the king 
led on the Swedes in person, in order to excite the emula- 
tion of the two nations to a noble competition. The 
second line was formed in the same manner ; and behind 
these was placed the reserve, commanded by Henderson, 
a Scotchman. 

In this position they awaited the eventful dawn of 
morning to begin a contest, which long delay, rather 
than the probability ol decisive consequences, and the 
picked body, rather than the number of combatants, was 
to render so terrible and remarkable. The strained 
expectation of Europe, so disappointed before Nurem- 
berg, was now to be gratified on the plains of Lutzen. 
During the whole course of the war two such generals, 
so equally matched in renown and ability, had not before 
been pitted against each other. Never as yet had daring 
been cooled by so awful a hazard, or hope animated by so 
glorious a prize. Europe was next day to learn who was her 
greatest general — to-morrow, the leader, Avho had hitherto 
been invincible, must acknowledge a victor. This morn- 
ing was to place it beyond a doubt whether the victories 
of Gustavus at Leipzig and on the Lech were owing to 
his own military genius or to the incompetency of his 
opponent; whether the services of Wallenstein were to 
vindicate the Emperor's choice, and justify the high price 
at which they had been purchased. The victory was as 
yet doubtful, but certain were the labor and the bloodshed 
by which it must be earned. Every private in both 
armies felt a jealous share in their leader's reputation, 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 259 

and under every corslet l3eat the same emotions that 
inflamed the bosoms of the generals. Each army knew 
the enemy to which it was to be opposed ; and the anxiety 
which each in vain attempted to repress was a convincing 
proof of their opponent's strength. 

At last the fatal morning dawned ; but an impenetra- 
ble fog, which spread over the plain, delayed the attack 
till noon. Kneeling in front of his lines the king offered 
up his devotions; and the whole army at the same mo- 
ment dropping on their knees burst into a moving hymn, 
accompanied by the military music. The king then 
mounted his horse, and clad only in a leathern doublet 
and surtout (for a wound he had formerly received pre- 
vented his wearing armor), he rode along the ranks to 
animate the courage of his troops with a joyful confi- 
dence, which, however, the forboding presentment of his 
own bosom contradicted. "God with us! " was the war- 
cry of the Swedes ; "Jesus Maria! " that of the Imperial- 
ists. About eleven the fog began to disperse and the 
enemy became visible. At the same moment Lutzen 
was seen in flames, having been set on fire by command 
of the duke to prevent his being outflanked on that side. 
The charge was now sounded ; the cavalry rushed upon 
the enemy, and the infantry advanced against the 
trenches. 

Received by a tremendous fire of musketry and heavy 
artillery, these intrepid battalions maintained the attack 
with undaunted courage till the enemy's musketeers 
abandoned their posts, the trenches were passed, the 
battery carried and turned against the enemy. They 
pressed forward with irresistible impetuosity; the first of 
the five imperial brigades was immediately routed, the 
second soon after, and the third put to flight. But here 
the genius of Wallenstein opposed itself to their pro- 
gress. With the rapidity of lightning he was on the spot 
to rally his discomfited troops ; and his powerful word 
was itself sufficient to stop the flight of the fugitives. 
Supported by three regiments of cavalry the vanquished 
brigades, forming anew, faced the enemy and pressed 
vigorously into the broken ranks of the Swedes. A 
murderous conflict ensued. The nearness of the enemy 



260 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

left no room for firearms, the fury of the attack no time 
for loading ; man was matched to man, the useless musket 
exchanged for the sword and pike, and science gave way 
to desperation. Overpowered by numbers the wearied 
Swedes at last retire beyond the trenches, and the cap- 
tured battery is again lost by the retreat. A thousan<l 
mangled bodies already strewed the plain, and as yet not 
a single step of ground had been won. 

In the meantime the king's right wing, led by himself, 
had fallen upon the enemy's left. The first impetuous 
shock of the heavy Finland cuirassiers dispersed the 
lightly-mounted Poles and Croats who w^ere posted here, 
and their disorderly flight spread terror and confusion 
among the rest of the cavalry. At this moment notice 
was brought to the king that his infantry were retreating 
over the trenches, and also that his left wing, exposed to 
a severe fire from the enemy's cannon posted at the wind- 
mills, was beginning to give way, AVith rapid decision 
he committed to General Horn the pursuit of the enemy's 
left, while he flew, at the head of the regiment of Stein- 
bock, to repair the disorder of his right wing. His noble 
charger bore him Avith the velocity of lightning across 
the trenches, but the squadrons that followed could not 
come on with the same speed, and only a few horsemen, 
among whom was Francis Albert, Duke of Saxe Lauen- 
burg, were able to keep up with the king. He rode 
directly to the place where his infantry were most closely 
pressed, and while he was reconnoitring the enemy's line 
for an exposed point of attack the shortness of his sight 
unfortunately led him too close to their ranks. An im- 
perial Gefreyter,* remarking that every one respectfully 
made way for him as he rode along, immediately ordered 
a musketeer to take aim at him. " Fire at him yonder," 
said he, " that must be a man of consequence." The 
soldier fired, and the king's left arm was shattered. At 
that moment his squadrons came hurrying up, and a con- 
fused cry of " the king bleeds ! the king is shot ! " spread 
terror and consternation through all the ranks. " It is 
nothing — follow me," cried the king, collecting his whole 

* Gef reyter, a person exempt from watching duty, nearly corresponding to 
tlie corporal. 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 261 

Strength ; but overcome by pain, and nearly fainting, he 
requested the Duke of Laiienburg, in French, to lead him 
unobserved out of the tumult. While the duke proceeded 
towards the right wing with the king, making a long 
circuit to keep this discouraging sight from the disordered 
infantry, his majesty received a second shot through the 
back, which deprived him of his remaining strength. 
"Brother," said he, with a dying voice, " I have enough! 
look only to your own life." At the same moment he 
fell from his horse pierced by several more shots, and 
abandoned by all his attendants he breathed his last 
amidst the plundering hands of the Croats. His charger, 
flying without its rider, and covered with blood, soon 
made known to the Swedish cavalry the fall of their 
king. They rushed madly forward to rescue his sacred 
remains from the hands of the enemy. A murderous 
conflict ensued over the body till his mangled remains 
were buried beneath a heap of slain. 

The mournful tidings soon ran through the SwedisK 
army ; but instead of destroying the courage of these 
brave troops, it but excited it into a new, a wild, and 
consuming flame. Life had lessened in value now that 
the most sacred life of all was gone ; death had no terrors 
for the lowly since the anointed head was not spared. 
With the fury of lions the Upland, Smaland, Finland, 
East and West Gothland regiments rushed a second time 
upon the left wing of the enemy, which, already making 
but feeble resistance to General Horn, was now entirely 
beaten from the field. Bernard, Duke of Saxe- Weimar, 
gave to the bereaved Swedes a noble leader in his own 
person ; and the spirit of Gustavus led his victorious 
squadrons anew. The left wing quickly formed again 
and vigorously pressed the right of the Imperialists. 
The artillery at the windmills, which had maintained so 
murderous a fire upon the Swedes, was captured and 
turned against the enemy. The centre also of the 
Swedish infantry, commanded by the duke and Knyp- 
hausen, advanced a second time against the trenches, 
which they successfully passed, and retook the battery of 
seven cannons. The attack was now renewed with re- 
doubled fury upon the heavy battalions of the enemy's 



^6^ l-HE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

centre ; their resistance became gradually less, and chance 
conspired with Swedish valor to complete the defeat. 
The imperial powder-wagons took fire, and, with a tre- 
mendous explosion, grenades and bombs filled the air. 
The enemy, now in confusion, thought they were attacked 
in the rear, while the Swedish brigades pressed them in 
front. Their courage began to fail them. Their left 
wing was already beaten, their right wavering, and their 
artillery in the enemy's hands. The battle seemed to be 
almost decided; another moment would decide the fate 
of the day, when Pappenheim appeared on the field with 
his cuirassiers and dragoons ; all the advantages already 
gained were lost, and the battle was to be fought anew. 

The order which recalled that general to Lutzen had 
reached him in Halle, while his troops were still plunder- 
ing the town. It was impossible to collect the scattered 
infantry with that rapidity which the urgency of the 
order and Pappenheim's impatience required. Without 
waiting for it, therefore, he ordered eight regiments of 
cavalry to mount, and at their head he galloped at full 
speed for Lutzen to share in the battle. He arrived in 
time to witness the flight of the imperial right wing, 
which Gustavus Horn was driving from the field, and to 
be at first involved in their rout. But with rapid pres- 
ence of mind he rallied the flying troops and led them 
once more against the enemy. Carried away by his wild 
bravery, and impatient to encounter the king, who he 
supposed was at the head of this wing, he burst furiously 
upon the Swedish ranks, which, exhausted by victory 
and Inferior in numbers, were, after a noble resistance, 
overpowered by this fresh body of enemies. Pappen- 
heim's unexpected appearance revived the drooping 
courage of the Imperialists, and the Duke of Friedland 
quickly availed himself of the favorable moment to re- 
form his line. The closely serried battalion of the 
Swedes were, after a tremendous conflict, again driven 
across the trenches, and the battery, which had been 
twice lost, again rescued from their hands. The whole 
yellow regiment, the finest of all that distingushed 
themselves in this dreadful day, lay dead on the field, 
covering the around almost in the same excellent order 



tHE THIRTY years' WAR» 263 

which, when alive, they maintained with such unyielding 
courage. The same fate befel another regiment of Blues 
which Count Piccolomini attacked with the imperial 
cavalry, and cut down after a desperate contest. Seven 
times did this intrepid general renew the attack ; seven 
horses were shot under him, and he himself was pierced 
with six musket balls ; yet he would not leave the field 
until he was carried along in the general rout of the 
whole army. Wallenstein himself was seen riding 
through his ranks with cool intrepidity, amidst a shower 
of balls, assisting the distressed, encouraging the valiant 
with praise, and the wavering by his fearful glance. 
Around and close by him his men were falling thick, and 
his own mantle was perforated by several shots. But 
avenging destiny this day protected that breast for which 
another weapon was reserved ; on the same field where 
the noble Gustavus expired Wallenstein was not allowed 
to terminate his guilty career. 

Less fortunate was Pappenheim, the Telamon of the 
army, the bravest soldier of Austria and the church. An 
ardent desire to encounter the king in person carried 
this daring leader into the thickest of the fight, where he 
thought his noble opponent was most surely to be met. 
Gustavus had also expressed a wish to meet his brave 
antagonist, but these hostile wishes remained ungratified ; 
death first brought together these two great heroes. 
Two musket-balls pierced the breast of Pappenheim ; and 
his men forcibly carried him from the field. While they 
were conveying him to the rear a murmur reached him 
that he whom he had sought lay dead upon the plain. 
When the truth of the report was confirmed to him, his 
look became brighter, his dying eye sparkled with a last 
gleam of joy. "Tell the Duke of Friedland," said he, 
" that I lie without hope of life, but that I die happy, 
since I know that the implacable enemy of my religion 
has fallen on the some day." 

With Pappenheim the good fortune of the Imperialists 
departed. The cavalry of the left wing, already beaten, 
and only rallied by his exertions, no sooner missed their 
victorious leader than they gave up everything for lost, 
and abandoned the field of battle in spiritless despair. 



264 TfiE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The right wing fell into the same confusion, with the 
exception of a few regiments, which the bravery of their 
colonels, Gotz, Terzky, Colloredo, and Piccolomini, com- 
pelled to keep their ground. The Swedish infantry, with 
prompt determination, profited by the enemy's confusion. 
To fill up the gaps which death had made in the front 
line they formed both lines into one, and with it made 
the final and decisive charge. A third time they crossed 
the trenches, and a third time they cajDtured the battery. 
The sun was setting when the two lines closed. The 
strife grew hotter as it drew to an end ; the last efforts 
of strength were mutually exerted, and skill and courage 
did their utmost to repair in these precious moments the 
fortune of the day. It was in vain ; despair endows 
every one with superhuman strength ; no one can conquer, 
no one will give way. The art of war seemed to exhaust 
its }>owers on one side only to unfold some new and 
untried masterpiece of skill on the other. Night and 
darkness at last put an end to the fight before the fury 
of the combatants was exhausted ; and the contest only 
ceased when no one could any longer find an antagonist. 
Both armies separated as if by tacit agreement ; the 
trumpets sounded and each party, claiming the victory, 
quitted the field. 

The artillery on both sides, as the horses could not be 
found, remained all night upon the field, at once the 
reward and the evidence of victory to him who should 
hold it. Wallenstein, in his haste to leave Leipzig and 
Saxony, forgot to remove his part. Not long after the 
battle was ended Pappenheim's infantry, who had been 
unable to follow the rapid movements of their general, 
and who amounted to six regiments, marched on the field, 
but the work was done. A few hours earlier so consid- 
erable a reinforcement would pei'haps have decided the 
day in favor of the Imperialists ; and, even now, by re- 
maining on the field, they might have saved the duke's 
artillery, and made a prize of that of the Swedes. But 
they had received no orders to act ; and uncertain as to 
the issue of the battle, they retired to Leipzig, where 
they hoped to join the innin body. 

The Duke of Friedlaad liad retreated thither, and was 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 265 

followed on the morrow by the scattered remains of his 
army, without artillery, without colors, and almost with- 
out arms. The Duke of Weimar, it appears, after the 
toils of this bloody day, allowed the Swedish army some 
repose, between Lutzen and Weissenfels, near enough to 
the field of battle to oppose any attempt the enemy 
might make to recover it. Of the two armies more than 
nine thousand men lay dead ; a still greater number were 
wounded, and among the Imperialists scarcely a man 
escaped from the field uninjured. The entire plain from 
Lutzen to the Canal was strewed with the wounded, the 
dying, and the dead. Many of the principal nobility had 
fallen on both sides. Even the Abbot of Fulda, who had 
mingled in the combat as a spectator, paid for his curiosity 
and his ill-timed zeal with his life. History says nothing 
of prisoners ; a further proof of the animosity of the 
combatants, who neither gave nor took quarter. 

Pappenheim died the next day of his wounds at Leipzig; 
an irreparable loss to the imperial army, which this brave 
warrior had so often led on to victory. The battle of 
Prague, where, together with Wallenstein, he was pres- 
ent as colonel, was the beginning of his heroic career. 
Dangerously wounded, with a few troops he made an 
impetuous attack on a regiment of the enemy, and lay for 
several hours mixed with the dead upon the field beneath 
the weight of his horse, till he was discovered by some 
of his own men in plundering. With a small force he 
defeated, in three different engagements, the rebels in 
Upper Austria, though forty thousand strong. At 
the battle of Leipzig he for a long time delayed the 
defeat of Tilly by his bravery, and led the arms of the 
Emperor on the Elbe and the Weser to victory. The 
wild, impetuous fire of his temperament, which no danger, 
however apparent, could cool, or impossibilities check, 
made him the most pow^erful arm of the imperial force, 
but unfitted him for acting at its head. The battle of 
Leipzig, if Tilly may be believed, was lost through his 
rash ardor. At the destruction of Magdeburg his hands 
were deeply steeped in blood ; war rendered savage and 
ferocious his disposition, which had been cultivated by 
youthful studies and various travels. On his forehead 



266 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

two red streaks, like swords, were perceptible, with which 
nature had marked him at his very birth. Even in his 
later years these became visible as often as his blood was 
stirred by passion ; and superstition easily persuaded 
itself that the future destiny of the man was thus im- 
pressed upon the forehead of the child. As a faithful 
servant of the House of Austria he had the strongest 
claims on the gratitude of both its lines, but he did not 
survive to enjoy the most brilliant proof of their regard. 
A messenger was already on his way from Madrid, bear- 
ing to him the order of the Golden Fleece, when death 
overtook him at Leipzig. 

Though Te Deum, in all Spanisli and Austrian lands, 
was sung in honor of a victory, Wallenstein himself, by 
the haste with which he quitted Leipzig, and soon after 
all Saxony, and by renouncing his original design of 
fixing there his winter quarters, openly confessed his 
defeat. It is true he made one moi'e feeble attempt to 
dispute, even in his flight, the honor of victory, by send- 
ing out his Croats next morning to the field; but the 
sight of the Swedish army drawn up in order of battle 
immediately dispersed these flying bands, and Duke Ber- 
nard, by keeping possession of the field, and soon after by 
the capture of Leipzig, maintained indisputably his claim 
to the title of victor. 

But it was a dear conquest, a dearer triumph ! It was 
not till the fury of the conquest was over that the full 
weight of the loss sustained was felt, and the shout of 
triumph died away into a silent gloom of despair. He 
who had led them to the charge returned not with them; 
there he lay upon the field which he had won, mingled 
with the dead bodies of the common crowd. After a 
long and almost fruitless search, the corpse of the king 
was discovered, not far from the great stone, which, for a 
hundred years before had stood between Lutzen and the 
Canal, and which, from the memorable disaster of that 
day, still bears the name of the Stone of the Swede. 
Covered with blood and wounds so as scarcely to be 
recognized, trampled beneath the horses' hoofs, stripped 
by the rude hands of plunderers of his ornaments and 
clotlies, his body was drawn from beneath a heap of dead; 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 267 

conveyed to Weissenfels, and there delivered up to the 
lamentations of his soldiers and the last embraces of his 
queen. The first tribute had been paid to revenge, and 
blood had atoned for the blood of the monarch ; but now 
affection assumes its rights, and tears of grief must flow 
for the man. The universal sorrow absorbs all individual 
woes. The generals, still stupefied by the unexpected 
blow, stood speechless and motionless around his bier, 
and no one trusted himself enough to contemplate the full 
extent of their loss. 

The Emperor, we are told by Khevenhuller, showed 
symptoms of deep and apparently sincere feeling at the 
sight of the king's doublet stained with blood, which had 
been strii^ped from him during the battle, and carried to 
Vienna. " Willingly," said he, " would I have granted 
to the unfortunate pi-ince a longer life, and a safe return 
to his kingdom, had Germany been at peace." But when 
a trait, which is nothing more than a proof of a yet 
lingering humanity, and which a mere regard to apj)ear- 
ances and even self-love would have extorted from the 
most insensible, and the absence of which could exist only 
in the most inhuman heart, has, by a Roman Catholic 
writer of modern times and acknowledged merit, been 
made the subject of the highest eulogiura, and, compared 
Avith the magnanimous tears of Alexander for the fall of 
Darius, our distrust is excited of the other virtues of the 
writer's hero, and what is still worse, of his own ideas of 
moral dignity. But even such praise, whatever its amount, 
is much for one whose memory his biographer has to clear 
from the suspicion of being privy to the assassination of a 
king. 

It was scarcely to be expected that the strong leaning 
of mankind to the marvellous would leave to the common 
course of nature the glory of ending the career of Gus- 
tavus Adolphus. The death of so formidable a rival was 
too important an event for the Emperor not to excite in 
his bitter opponent a ready suspicion that what was so 
much to his interests Avas also the result of his instiga- 
tion. For the execution, however, of this dark deed the 
Emperor would require the aid of a foreign arm, and this 
it was generally believed he had found in Francis Albert, 



268 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAK. 

Duke of Saxe Lauenburg. The rank of the latter per- 
mitted him a free access to the king's person, while it at 
the same time seemed to place him above the suspicion 
of so foul a deed. This prince however was in fact not 
incapable of this atrocity, and he had moreover sufficient 
motives for its commission, 

Francis Albert, the youngest of four sons of Francis 
II., Duke of Lauenburg, and related by the mother's side 
to the race of Vasa, had in his early years found a most 
friendly reception at the Swedish court. Some offence 
which he had committed against Gustavus Adolphus in 
the queen's chamber was, it is said, repaid by this fiery 
youth with a box on the ear ; which, though immediately 
repented of, and amply apologized for, laid the founda- 
tion of an irreconcilable hate in the vindictive heart of 
the duke. Francis Albert subsequently entered the im- 
perial service, where he rose to the command of a reg- 
iment, and formed a close intimacy with Wallenstein, 
and condescended to be the instrument of a secret nego- 
tiation with the Saxon court which did little honor to 
his rank. Without any sufficient cause being assigned, 
he suddenly quitted the Austrian service, and appeared 
in the king^'s camp at Nuremberg to offer his services as 
a volunteer. By his show of zeal for the Protestant 
cause, and prepossessing and flattering deportment, he 
gained the heart of the king, who, warned in vain by 
Oxenstiern, continued to lavish his favor and friendship 
on this suspicious newcomer. The battle of Lutzen soon 
followed, in which Francis Albert, like an evil genius, 
kept close to the king's side and did not leave him till he 
fell. He owed, it was thought, his own safety amidst tlie 
fire of the enemy to a green sash which he wore, tlie color 
of the Imperialists. He was at any rate the first to convey 
to his friend Wallenstein the intelligence of the king's 
death. After the battle he exchanged "the Swedish service 
for the Saxon ; and, after the murder of Wallenstein, being 
charged with being an accomplice of that general, he only 
escaped the sword of justice by abjuring his faith. His 
last appearance in life was as commander of an imperii)/ 
army in Silesia, where he died of the wounds he had re- 
ceived before Schweidnitz. It requires some effort to 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 269 

believe in the innocence of a man who had run through 
a career like this of the act charged against him ; but 
however great may be the moral and physical possibility 
of his committing such a crime, it must still be allowed 
that there are no certain grounds for imputing it to him. 
Gustavus Adolphus it is well known exposed himself to 
danger, like the meanest soldier in his army, and where 
thousands fell he too might naturally meet his death. 
How it reached him remains indeed buried in mystery; 
but here, more than anywhere, does the maxim apply, 
that where the ordinary course of things is fully sufficient 
to account for the fact the honor of human nature ought 
not to be stained by any suspicion of moral atrocity. 

But by whatever hand he fell his extraordinary destiny 
must appear a great interjDOsition of Providence, History, 
too often confined to the ungrateful task of analyzing the 
uniform play of human passions, is occasionally rewarded 
by the appearance of events which strike, like a hand 
from heaven, into the nicely adjusted machinery of hu- 
man plans, and carry the contemiDlative mind to a higher 
order of things. Of this kind is the sudden retirement 
of Gustavus Adolphus from the scene ; stopping for a 
time the whole movement of the political machine, and 
disappointing all the calculations of human prudence. 
Yesterday the very soul, the great and animating prin- 
ciple of his own creation ; to-day struck unpitiably to 
the ground in the very midst of his eagle flight ; untimely 
torn from a whole world of great designs, and from the 
ripening harvest of his expectations, he left his bereaved 
party disconsolate; and the proud edifice of his past 
greatness sunk into ruins. The Protestant party had 
identified its hopes with its invincible leader, and scarcely 
can it now separate them from him ; with him they now 
fear all good fortune is buried. But it was no longer the 
benefactor of Germany who fell at Lutzen ; the beneficent 
part of his career Gustavus Adolphus had already termi- 
nated ; and now the greatest service which he could 
render to the liberties of Germany was — to die. The 
all-engrossing power of an individual was at an end, but 
many came forward to essay their strength ; the equivo- 
cal assistance of an over powerful protector gave place to 



270 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

a more noble self-exertion on the part of the Estates ; and 
those who were formerly the mere instruments of his 
aggrandizement, now began to work for themselves. 
They now looked to their own exertions for the emanci- 
pation which could not be received without danger from 
the hand of the mighty; and the Swedish power, now 
incapable of sinking into the oppressor, was henceforth 
restricted to the more modest j^art of an ally. 

The ambition of the Swedish monarch aspired unques- 
tionably to establish a power within Germany, and to 
attain a firm footing in the centre of the empire, which 
was inconsistent with the liberties of the Estates. His 
aim was the imperial crown ; and tliis dignity, supported 
by his power, and maintained by his energy and activity, 
would in his hands be liable to moi'e abuse than had 
ever been feared from the House of Austria. Born in a 
foreign country, educated in the maxims of arbitrary 
power, and by principles and enthusiasm a determined 
enemy to Popery, he was ill-qualified to maintain invio- 
late the constitution of the German States or to respect 
their liberties. The coercive homage which Augsburg, 
with many other cities, was forced to pay to the Swedish 
crown bespoke the conqueror rather than the protector 
of the empire ; and this town, prouder of the title of a 
royal city than of the higher dignity of the freedom 
of the empire, flattered itself with the anticipation of 
becoming the capital of his future kingdom. His ill- 
disguised attempts iipon the Electorate of Mentz, which 
he first intended to bestow upon the Elector of Branden- 
burg as the dower of his daughter Christina, and after- 
wards destined for his chancellor and friend, Oxenstiern, 
evinced plainly what liberties he was disposed to take 
with the constitution of the empire. His allies, the Prot- 
estant princes, had claims on his gratitude which could 
be satisfied only at the expense of their Roman Catholic 
neighbors, and particularly of the immediate Ecclesias- 
tical Chapters ; and it seems probable a plan was early 
formed for dividing the conquered provinces (after the 
precedent of the barbarian hordes who overran the Ger- 
man empire), as a common spoil, among the German and 
Swedish confederates. In his treatment of the Elector 



THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR, 271 

Palatine he entirely belied the magnanimity of the hero, 
and forgot the sacred character of a protector. The 
Palatinate was in his hands, and the obligations both ' of 
justice and honor demanded its full and immediate resto- 
ration to the legitimate sovereign. But by a subtlety 
unworthy of a great mind, and disgraceful to the honor- 
able title of protector of the oppressed, he eluded that 
obligation. He treated the Palatinate as a conquest 
wrested from the enemy, and thought that this circum- 
stance gave him a right to deal with it as he pleased. He 
surrendered it to the Elector as a favor, not as a debt ; 
and that, too, as a Swedish fief, fettered by conditions 
which diminished half its value, and degraded this unfor- 
tunate prince into an humble vassal of Sweden. One of 
these conditions obliged the Elector, after the conclusion 
of the war, to furnish, along with the other princes, his 
contribution towards the maintenance of the Swedish 
army, a condition which plainly indicates the fate which, 
in the event of the ultimate success of the king, awaited 
Germany. His sudden disappearance secured the liber- 
ties of Germany, and saved his reputation, while it prob- 
ably spared him the mortification of seeing his own allies 
in arms against him, and all the fruits of his victories 
torn from him by a disadvantageous peace. Saxony was 
already disposed to abandon him, Denmark viewed his 
success with alarm and jealousy; and even France, the 
firmest and most potent of his allies, terrified at the 
rapid growth of his power and the imperious tone which 
he assumed, looked around at the very moment he passed 
the Lech for foreign alliances, in order to check the 
progress of the Goths and restore to Europe the balance 
of power. 



BOOK IV. 



The weak bond of union by which Gustavus Adolphus 
contrived to hold together the Protestant members of 
the empire was dissolved by his death ; the allies were 
now again at liberty, and their alliance to last must be 



272 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

formed anew. By the former event, if unremedied, they 
would lose all the advantages they had gained at the cost 
of so much bloodshed, and expose themselves to the inev- 
itable danger of becoming, one after the other, the prey 
of an enemy whom, by their union alone, they had been 
able to oppose and to master. Neither Sweden nor any 
of the states of the empire was singly a match with the 
Emperor and the League ; and, by seeking a peace under 
the present state of things, they would necessarily be 
obliged to receive laws from the enemy. Union was, 
therefore, equally indispensable, either for concluding a 
peace or continuing the war. But a peace sought under 
the present circumstances could not fail to be disadvan- 
tageous to the allied powers. With the death of Gus- 
tavus Adolphus the enemy had formed new hopes ; and 
however gloomy might be the situation of his affairs 
after the battle of Lutzen, still the death of his dreaded 
rival was an event too disastrous to the allies, and too 
favorable for the Emperor, not to justify him in enter- 
taining the most brilliant expectations, and not to en- 
courage him to the prosecution of the war. Its inevitable 
consequence, for the moment at least, must be want of 
union among the allies, and what might not the Emperor 
and the League gain from such a division of their ene- 
mies ? He was not likely to sacrifice such prospects as 
the present turn of affairs held out to him for any peace 
not highly beneficial to himself ; and such a peace the 
allies would not be disposed to accept. They naturally 
determined, therefore, to continue the war, and for this 
purpose the maintenance of the existing union was ac- 
knowledged to be indispensable. 

But how was this itnion to be renewed ; and whence 
were to be derived the necessary means for continuing 
the war ? It was not the power of Sweden, but the talents 
and personal influence of its late king, which had given 
him so overwhelming an influence in Germany, so great 
a command over the minds of men ; and even he had 
innumerable difliculties to overcome before he could estab- 
lish among the states even a weak and wavering alliance. 
With his death vanished all which his personal qualities 
alone had rendered practicable ; and the mutual obliga* 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 273 

tion of the states seemed to cease with the hopes on which 
it had been founded. Several imi^atiently threw off the 
yoke which had always been irksome ; others hastened to 
seize the helm which they had unwillingly seen in the 
hands of Gustavus, but which, during his lifetime, they 
did not dare to dispute with him. Some were tempted 
by the seductive promises of the Emperor to abandon 
the alliance ; others, oppressed by the heavy burdens of 
a fourteen years' war, longed for the repose of peace 
upon any conditions, however ruinous. The generals of 
the army, partly German princes, acknowledged no com- 
mon head, and no one would stoop to receive orders from 
another. Unanimity vanished alike from the cabinet and 
the field, and their common weal was threatened with ruin 
by the spirit of disunion. 

Gustavus had left no male heir to the crown of Sweden ; 
his daughter, Christina, then six years old, was the natural 
heir. The unavoidable weakness of a regency suited ill 
with the energy and resolution which Sweden would be 
called upon to display in this trying conjuncture. The 
wide-reaching mind of Gustavus Adolphus had raised this 
unimportant and hitherto unknown kingdom to a rank 
among the powers of Europe which it could not retain 
without the fortune and genius of its author, and from 
which it could not recede without a humiliating confession 
of weakness. Though the German war had been con- 
ducted chiefly on the resources of Germany, yet even the 
small contribution of men and money which Sweden fur- 
nished had sufiiced to exhaust the finances of that poor 
kingdom, and the peasantry groaned beneath the imposts 
necessarily laid upon them. The plunder gained in Ger- 
many enriched only a few individuals among the nobles 
and the soldiers, while Sweden itself remained poor as 
before. For a time, it is true, the national glory recon- 
ciled the subject to these burdens, and the sums exacted 
seemed but as a loan placed at interest in the fortunate 
hand of Gustavus Adolphus, to be richly repaid by the 
grateful monarch at the conclusion of a glorious peace. 
But with the king's death this hope vanished, and the 
deluded people now loudly demanded relief from their 
burdens. 



274 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

But the spirit of Gustavus Adolphus still lived in the 
men to whom he had confided the administration of 
the kingdom. However dreadful to them and unexpected 
was the intelligence of his death, it did not deprive them 
of their manly courage ; and the spirit of ancient Rome, 
under the invasion of Brennus and Hannibal, animated 
this noble assembly. The greater the price at which 
these hard-gained advantages had been purchased the 
less readily could they reconcile themselves to renounce 
them ; not unrevenged was a king to be sacrified. Called 
on to choose between a doubtful and exhausting war and 
a profitable but disgraceful peace, the Swedish council of 
state boldly espoused the side of danger and honor ; and 
with agreeable surprise men beheld this venerable senate 
acting with all the energy and enthusiasm of youth. Sur- 
rounded with watchful enemies, both within and without, 
and threatened on every side with danger, they armed 
themselves against them all, with equal prudence and 
heroism, and labored to extend their kingdom, even at 
the moment when they had to struggle for its existence. 

The decease of the king, and the minority of his 
daughter Christina, renewed the claims of Poland to the 
Swedish throne ; and King Ladislaus, the son of Sigis- 
mund, spared no intrigues to gain a party in Sweden. On 
this ground the regency lost no time in proclaiming the 
young queen and arranging the administration of the 
regency. All the officers of the kingdom were summoned 
to do homage to their new princess ; all correspondence 
with Poland prohibited, and the edicts of previous 
monarchs against the heirs of Sigismund confirmed by a 
solemn act of the nation. The alliance with the Czar of 
Muscovy was carefully renewed in order, by the arms of 
this prince, to keep the hostile Poles in check. The death 
of Gustavus Adolphus had put an end to the jealousy of 
Denmark, and removed the grounds of alarm which had 
stood in the way of a good understanding between the 
two states. The representations by which the enemy 
sought to stir up Christian IV. against Sweden were no 
longer listened to ; and the strong wish the Danish 
monarch entertained for the marriage of his son Ulrick 
with the young princess, combined, with the dictates of a 



THE THIRTr YEARS WAR. 

sounder policy, to incline him to a neutrality. At the 
same time England, Holland, and France came forward 
with the gratifying assurances to the regency of continued 
friendship and support, and encouraged them, with one 
voice, to prosecute with activity the war which hitherto 
had been conducted with so much glory. Whatever 
reason France might have to congratulate itself on the 
death of the Swedish conqueror, it was as fully sensible 
of the expediency of maintaining the alliance with Swe- 
den. "Without exposing itself to great danger it could 
not allow the power of Sweden to sink in Germany. 
Want of resources of its own would either drive Sweden 
to conclude a hasty and disadvantageous peace with 
Austria, and then all the past efforts to lower the ascend- 
ancy of this dangerous power would be thrown away; 
or necessity and despair would drive the armies to extort 
from the Roman Catholic states the means of support, 
and France would then be regarded as the betrayer of 
those very states who had placed themselves under her 
powerful protection. The death of Gustavus, far from 
breaking up the alliance between France and Sweden, 
had only rendered it more necessary for both and more 
profitable for France. Now, for the first time, since he 
was dead who had stretched his protecting arm over 
Germany, and guarded its frontiers against the encroach- 
ing designs of France, coiild the latter safely pursue its 
designs upon Alsace, and thus be enabled to sell its aid to 
the German Protestants at a dearer rate. 

Strengthened by these alliances, secured in its interior, 
and defended from without by strong frontier garrisons 
and fleets, the regency did not delay an instant to con- 
tinue a w^ar by which Sweden had little of its own to 
lose, while, if success attended its arms, one or more of 
the German provinces might be won, either as a conquest 
or indemnification of its expenses. Secure amidst its 
seas, Sweden, even if driven out of Germany, would 
scarcely be exposed to greater peril than if it voluntarily 
retired from the contest, while the former measure was 
as honorable as the latter was disgraceful. The more 
boldness the regency displayed the more confidence 
would they inspire among their confederates, the more 



276 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

]-espect among their enemies, and the more favorable con- 
ditions niiglit they anticipate in the event of peace. If 
they found tliemselves too weak to execute the wide- 
ranging ])rojects of Gustavus they at least owed it to 
this lofty model to do their utmost and to yield to no 
difficulty short of absolute necessity. Alas, that motives 
of self-interest had too great a share in this noble deter- 
mination to demand our unqualified admiration ! For 
those who had notliing themselves to suffer from the 
calamities of war, but were rather to be enriched by it, 
it was an easy matter to resolve upon its continuation ; 
for the German empire was, in the end, to defi'ay the 
expenses ; and the provinces on which they reckoned 
would be cheaply purchased with the few troops they 
sacrificed to them, and with the generals who were placed 
at the head of armies, composed for the most part of 
Germans, and with the honorable superintendence of all 
the operations, both military and political. 

But this superintendence was irreconcilable with the 
distance of the Swedish regency from the scene of action, 
and with the slowness which necessarily accompanies all 
the movements of a council. 

To one comprehensive mind must be entrusted the 
management of Swedish interests in Germany, and with 
full powers to determine at discretion all questions of wai 
and peace, the necessary alliances, or the acquisitions 
made. With dictatorial power, and w^ith the whole 
influence of the crown which he was to represent, must 
this important magistrate be invested, in order to main- 
tain its dignity, to enforce united and combined opera- 
tions, to give effect to his orders, and to supply the place 
of the monarch wdiom he succeeded. Such a man was 
found in the Chancellor Oxenstiern, the first minister, 
and, what is more, the friend of the deceased king, who, 
acquainted with all the secrets of his master, versed in 
the politics of Germany, and in the relations of all the 
states of Europe, was unquestionably the fittest instru- 
ment to carry out the plans of Gustavus Adolphus in 
their full extent. 

Oxenstiern was on his way to Upper Germany in order 
to assemble the four Upper Circles when the news of the 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 277 

king's death reached him at Hanau. This was a heavy 
blow, both to the friend and the statesman. Sweden, 
indeed, had lost but a king, Germany a protector ; but 
Oxenstiern, the author of his fortunes, the friend of his 
soul, and the object of his admiration. Though the 
greatest sufferer in the general loss, he was the first who 
by his energy rose from the blow, and the only one quali- 
fied to repair it. His penetrating glance foresaw all the 
obstacles which would oppose the execution of his plans, 
the discouragements of the estates, the intrigues of hos- 
tile courts, the breaking up of the confederacy, the jeal- 
ousy of the leaders, and the dislike of princes of the 
empire to submit to foreign authority. But even this 
deep insight into the existing state of things, which 
revealed the whole extent of the evil, showed him also 
the means by which it might be overcome. It was essen- 
tial to revive the drooping courage of the weaker states, 
to meet the secret machinations of the enemy, to allay 
the jealousy of the more powerful allies, to rouse the 
friendly powers, and France in particular, to active 
assistance ; but, above all, to repair the ruined edifice of 
the German alliance, and to reunite the scattered strength 
of the party by a clos^ and permanent bond of union. 
The dismay which the loss of their leader occasioned the 
German Protestants might as readily dispose them to a 
closer alliance with Sweden as to a hasty peace with the 
Emperor ; and it depended entirely upon the course pur- 
sued which of these alternatives they would adopt. 
Everything might be lost by the slightest sign of despond- 
ency ; nothing but the confidence which Sweden showed 
in herself could kindle among the Germans a noble feel- 
ing of self-confidence. All the attempts of Austria to 
detach these princes from the Swedish alliance would be 
unavailing the moment their eyes became opened to their 
true interests, and they were instigated to a public and 
formal breach with the Emperor. 

Before these measures coxild be taken, and the neces- 
sary points settled between the regency and their minis- 
ter, a precious opportunity of action would, it is true, be 
lost to the Swedish army, of which the enemy would 
be sure to take the utmost advantage. It was, in short. 



278 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

in the power of the Emperor totally to ruin the Swedish 
interest in Germany, and to this he was actually invited 
by the prudent councils of the Duke of Friedland. 
Wallenstein advised him to proclaim an universal am- 
nesty and to meet the Protestant states with favorable 
conditions. In the first consternation produced by the 
fall of Gustavus Adolphus such a declaration would have 
had the most powerful effects, and probably would have 
brought the wavering states back to their allegiance. 
But blinded by this unexpected turn of fortune, and in- 
fatuated by the Spanish counsels, he anticipated a more 
brilliant issue from war ; and instead of listening to these 
propositions of an accommodation he hastened to aug- 
ment his forces. Spain, enriched by the grant of the 
tenth of the ecclesiastical possessions, which the Pope 
confirmed, sent him considerable supplies, negotiated for 
him at the Saxon court, and hastily levied troops for him 
in Italy to be employed in Germany. The Elector of 
Bavaria also considerably increased his military force; 
and the restless disposition of the Duke of Lorraine did 
not permit him to remain inactive in this favorable change 
of fortune. But while the enemy were thus busy to 
profit by the disaster of Sweden Oxenstiern was diligent 
to avert its most fatal consequences. 

Less apprehensive of open enemies than of the jealousy 
of the friendly powers, he left Upper Germany, which 
he had secured by conquests and alliances, and set out 
in person to prevent a total defection of the Lower Ger- 
man states, or, what would have been almost equally 
ruinous to Sweden, a private alliance among themselves 
Offended at the boldness with which the chancellor 
assumed the direction of affairs, and inwardly exasper- 
ated at the thought of being dictated to by a Swedish 
nobleman, the Elector of Saxony again meditated a dan- 
gerous separation from Sweden; and the only question 
in his mind was whether he should make full terms with 
the Emperor or place himself at the head of the Prot- 
estants and form a third party in Germany. Similar 
ideas were cherished by Duke IJlric of Brunswick, who, 
indeed, showed them openly enough by forbidding the 
Swedes from recruiting within his dominions, and in- 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 279 

vitino- the Lower Saxon states to Limeburg for the 
nSse of foiling a confederacy among themselves. 
^rrElector of Brandenburg, jealous of the mtoence 
w ich Saxony was likely to attam m Lower <:^eimany, 
Tlone manifested any zeal for the interests of the Swedish 
throne whch, in thought, he already destmed for h s 
«nn At the court of Saxony Oxenstiern was no doubt 
honorary received; but, notwithstanding the persona 
efforts of\he Elector of Brandenburg, empty promises of 
Sued friendship were all which he could obt-^ 
With the Duke of Brunswick he was more successiui, 
Kith him he ventuvea to assume a bo der tone Swe 
den was at the time m possession of the see ot ^viagae 
bur/the bishop of which had the power of assembl ng 
hhP^fower Saxon circle. The chancellor now asserted 
the rihtfof the crown, and by this spirited proceeding 
Dut a stop for the present to this dangerous assembly 
Limned by tie duke. The main object, however, of his 
m-esent journey and of his future endeavors, a general 
confederacy of the Protestants, miscarried entirely and 
Te was oblied to content himself with some unsteady 
alliances in the Saxon circles, and with the weaker assist- 
ance of Upper Germany. r i ^„ +t.p -nannbe 
As the Bavarians were too powerful on the Danube 
the assembly of the four Upper Circles, which should 
have been held at Ulm, was removed to Heilbronn, where 
deputies of more than twelve cities of the empire, with 
a bdlliant crowd of doctors, counts, and princes, attended 
The ambassadors of foreign powers, hke wise, France 
England, and Holland, attended this ^onf-ess, at which 
Oxenstiern appeared in person with all the |l^lend^r o 
the crown whose representative he was. He himselt 
openedThe proceedings and conducted the deliberations. 
After receivino- from 111 the assembled estates assurances 
of unshaken fidelity, perseverance, and ""^ty, he required 
of them solemnly and formally to declare the Emperor 
and the League as enemies. But desirable as it was for 
Sweden to exasperate the ill-feeling between the Empei-or 
and the estates' into a formal rupture, the letter on the 
other hand, were equally indisposed to shut out the possi- 
bility of reconciliation by so decided a step, and to place 



280 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

themselves entirely in the hands of the Swedes. They 
maintained that any formal declaration of war was useless 
and superfluous, where the act would speak for itself, 
and their firmness on this point silenced at last the chan- 
cellor. Warmer disputes arose on the third and principal 
article of the treaty, concerning the means of prosecuting 
the war, and the quota which the several states ought to 
furnish for the support of the army. Oxenstiern's maxim, 
to throw as much as possible of the common burden on 
the states, did not suit very well with their determination 
to give as little as possible. The Swedish chancellor 
now experienced what had been felt by thirty emperors 
before him to their cost, that of all diflScult undertakings 
the most difficult was to extort money from the Germans. 
Instead of granting the necessary sums for the new armies 
to be raised, they eloquently dwelt upon the calamities 
occasioned by the former, and demanded relief from the 
old burdens when they were required to submit to new. 
The irritation which the chancellor's demand for money 
raised among the states gave rise to a thousand com- 
plaints ; and the outrages committed by the troops in 
their marches and quarters were dwelt u2Don with a 
startling minuteness and truth. 

In the service of two absolute monarchs Oxenstiern 
had but little opportunity to become accustomed to the 
formalities and cautious proceedings of republican de- 
liberations, or to bear opposition with patience. Ready 
to act the instant the necessity of action was apparent, 
and inflexible in his resolution when he had once taken 
it, he was at a loss to comprehend the inconsistency of 
most men, who, while they desire the end, are yet averse 
to the means. Prompt and impetuous by nature, he was 
so on this occasion from principle ; for everything de- 
pended on concealing the weakness of Sweden under a 
firm and confident speech, and by assuming the tone of a 
lawgiver, really to become so. It was notliing wonderful, 
therefore, if, amidst these interminable discussions witli 
German doctors and deputies, lie was entirely out of his 
sphere, and if the deliberateness which distinguishes the 
character of the Germans in their public deliberations 
had driven him almost to despaii*. Without respecting a 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 281 

custom, to which even the most powerful of the emperors 
had been obliged to conform, he rejected all written de- 
liberations, which suited so well with the national slow- 
ness of resolve. He could not conceive how ten days 
could be spent in debating a measure which with him- 
self was decided upon its bare suggestion. Harshly, 
however, as he treated the states he found them ready 
enough to assent to his fourth motion, which concerned 
himself. When he pointed out the necessity of giving a 
director to the new confederation that honor was un- 
animously assigned to Sweden, and he himself was 
humbly requested to give to the common cause the bene- 
fit of his enlightened experience, and to take upon him- 
self the burden of the supreme command. But in order 
to prevent his abusing the great powers thus conferred 
upon him it was proposed, not without French influence, 
to appoint a number of overseers, in fact, under the name 
of assistants, to control the expenditure of the common 
treasure and to consult with him as to the levies, 
marches, and quarterings of the troops. Oxenstiern 
long and strenuously resisted this limitation of his au- 
thority, which could not fail to trammel him in the exe- 
cution of every enterprise requiring promptitude or 
secrecy, and at last succeeded, with difficulty, in obtain- 
ing so far a modification of it that his management in 
affairs of war was to be uncontrolled. The chancellor 
finally approached the delicate point of the indemnifica- 
tion which Sweden was to expect at the conclusion of the 
war from the gratitude of the allies, and flattered him- 
self with the hope that Pomerania, the main object of 
Sweden, would be assigned to her, and that he would 
obtain from the provinces assurances of effectual co- 
operation in its acquisition. But he could obtain nothing 
more than a vague assurance that in a general peace the 
interests of all parties would be attended to. Thai on 
this point the caution of the estates was not owing to any 
regard for the constitution of the empire became mani- 
fest from the liberality they evinced towards the chan- 
cellor at the expense of the most sacred laws of the 
empire. They were ready to grant him the archbishopric 
of Mentz (which he already held as a conquest), and only 



282 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

with difficulty did the French ambassador succeed in 
preventing a step whicli was as impolitic as it was dis- 
graceful. Though, on the whole, the result of the con- 
gress had fallen far short of Oxenstiern's expectations, 
he had at least gained for himself and his crown his 
main object, namely, the direction of the whole con- 
federacy; he had also succeeded in strengthening the 
bond of union between the four upper circles, and ob- 
tained from the states a yearly contribution of two mil- 
lions and a half of dollars for the maintenance of the 
army. 

These concessions on the part of the States demanded 
some return from Sweden. A few weeks after the death 
of Gustavus Adolphus sorrow ended the days of the 
unfortunate Elector Palatine. For eight months he had 
swelled the pomp of his protector's court and expended 
on it the small remainder of his patrimony. He was at 
last approaching the goal of his wishes, and the pros- 
pect of a brighter future was opening when death 
deprived him of his protector. But what he regarded as 
the greatest calamity was highly favorable to his heirs. 
Gustavus might venture to delay the restoration of his 
dominions or to load the gift with hard conditions ; but 
Oxenstiern, to whom the friendship of England, Holland, 
and Brandenburg, and the good opinion of the Reformed 
States were indispensable, felt the necessity of immedi- 
ately fulfilling the obligations of justice. At this assem- 
bly at Heilbronn, therefore, he engaged to surrender to 
Frederick's heirs the whole Palatinate, botli the part 
already conquered, and that which remained to be con- 
quered, with the exception of Manheim, which the 
Swedes were to hold until they should be indemnified 
for their expenses. The chancellor did not confine his 
liberality to the family of the Palatine alone ; the other 
allied princes received proofs, though at a later period, 
of the gratitude of Sweden, which, however, she dis- 
pensed at little cost to herself. 

Impartiality, the most sacred obligation of the histo- 
rian, here compels us to an admission not much to the 
honor of the champions of German liberty. However 
the Protestant princes might boast of the justice of their 



THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 283 

cause, and the sincerity of their conviction, still the 
motives from which they acted were selfish enough ; and 
the desire of stripping others of their possessions had at 
least as great a share in the commencement of hostilities 
as the fear of being deprived of their own. Gustavus 
soon found that he might reckon much more on these 
selfish motives than on their patriotic zeal, and did not 
fail to avail himself of them. Each of his confederates 
received from him the promise of some possession, either 
already wrested or to be afterwards taken from the 
enemy; and death alone prevented him from fulfilling 
these engagements. What prudence had suggested to 
the king necessity now prescribed to his successor. If 
it was his object to continue the war he must be ready 
to divide the spoil among the allies, and promise them 
advantages from the confusion which it was his object 
to continue. Thus he promised to the Landgrave of 
Hesse the abbacies of Paderborn, Corvey, Munster, and 
Fulda; to Duke Bernard of Weimar the Franconian 
bishoprics ; to the Duke of Wirtemberg the Ecclesias- 
tical domains, and the Austrian countries lying within 
his territories, all under the title of fiefs of Sweden. 
This spectacle, so strange and so dishonorable to the 
German character, surprised the chancellor, who found 
it difiicult to repress his contempt, and on one occasion 
exclaimed, " Let it be writ in our records for an ever- 
lasting memorial that a German prince made such a 
request of a Swedish nobleman, and that the Swedish 
nobleman granted it to the German ujDon German 
ground ! " 

After these successful measures he was in a condition 
to take the field and prosecute the war with fresh vigor. 
Soon after the victory at Lutzen the troops of Saxony 
and Lunenburg united with the Swedish main body ; and 
the Imperialists were in a short time totally driven from 
Saxony. The united army again divided ; the Saxons 
marched towards Lusatia and Silesia, to act in conjunction 
with Count Thurn against the Austrians in that quarter,* 
a part of the Swedish army was led by the Duke of 
Weimar into Franconia, and the other by George, Duke 
of Brunswick, into Westphalia and Lower Saxony. 



284 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

The conquests on the Lech and the Danube during 
Gustavus' expedition into Saxony had been maintained 
by the Palatine of Birkenfeld and the Swedish General 
Banner against the Bavarians ; but, unable to hold their 
ground against the victorious progress of the latter, 
supported as they were by the bravery and military expe- 
rience of the Imperial General Altringer, they were under 
the necessity of summoning the Swedish General Horn 
to their assistance from Alsace. This experienced general 
having captured the towns of Benfeld, Schlettstadt, Col- 
mar, and Hagenau, committed the defence of them to the 
Rhinegrave Otto Louis, and hastily crossed the Rhine to 
form a junction with Banner's army. But although 
the combined force amounted to more than sixteen thou- 
sand they could not prevent the enemy from obtaining a 
strong position on the Swabian frontier, taking Kempten, 
and being joined by seven regiments from Bohemia. In 
order to retain the command of the important banks of 
the Lech and the Danube they were under the necessity 
of recalling the Rhinegrave Otto Louis from Alsace, 
where he had, after the departure of Horn, found it diiS- 
cult to defend himself against the exasperated peasantry. 
With his army he was now summoned to strengthen the 
army on the Danube, and as even this reinforcement was 
insufficient, Duke Bernard of Weimar was earnestly 
pressed to turn his arms into this quarter. 

Duke Bernard, soon after the opening of the campaign 
of 1633, had made himself master of the town and terri- 
tory of Bamberg, and was now threatening Wurtzburg. 
But on receiving the summons of General Horn without 
delay he began his march towards the Danube, defeated 
on his way a Bavarian array iinder John de Werth, and 
joined the Swedes near Donauwerth. This numerous 
force, commanded by excellent generals, now threatened 
Bavaria with a fearful inroad. The Bishopric of Eich- 
stadt was completely overrun, and Ingoldstadt was on 
the point of being delivered up by treachery to the 
Swedes. Altringer, fettered in his movements by the 
express order of the Duke of Friedland, and left without 
assistance from Bohemia, was unable to check the pro- 
gress of the enemy. The most favorable circumstances 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 285 

combined to further the progress of the Swedish arms in 
this quarter, when the operations of the army were at 
once stopped by a mutiny among the officers. 

All the previous successes in Germany Avere owing 
altogether to arms ; the greatness of Gustavus himself was 
the work of the army, the fruit of their discipline, their 
bravery, and their persevering courage under numberless 
dangers and privations. However wisely his plans were 
laid in the cabinet it was to the army ultimately that he 
was indebted for their execution ; and the expanding 
designs of the general did but continually impose new 
burdens on the soldiers. All the decisive advantages of 
the war had been violently gained by a barbarous sacrifice 
of the soldiers' lives in winter campaigns, forced marches, 
stormings, and pitched battles, for it was Gustavus' 
maxim never to decline a battle so long as it cost him 
nothing but men. The soldiers could not long be kept 
ignorant of their own importance, and they justly 
demanded a share in the spoil which had been won by 
their own blood. Yet, frequently they hardly received their 
pay, and the rapacity of individual generals or the wants 
of the state generally swallowed up the greater part of 
the sums raised by contributions or levied ujDon the con- 
quered provinces. For all the privations he endured the 
soldier had no other recompense than the doubtful chance 
either of plunder or promotion, in both of which he was 
often disappointed. During the lifetime of Gustavus Adol- 
phus the combined influence of fear and hope had sup- 
pressed any open complaint, but after his death the 
murmurs were loud and universal, and the soldiery seized 
the most dangerous moment to impress their superiors with 
a sense of their importance. Two officers, Pf uhl and Mits- 
chefal, notorious as restless characters even during the 
king's life, set the example in the camp on the Danube, 
which in a few days was imitated by almost all the officers 
of the army. They solemnly bound themselves to obey no 
orders till these arrears, now outstanding for months, and 
even years, should be paid up, and a gratuity, either in 
money or lands, made to each man according to his ser- 
vices. "Immense sums," they said, " were daily raised 
by contributions and all dissipated by a few. They were 



286 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

called out to serve amidst frost and snow and no reward 
requited their incessant labors. The soldiers' excesses at 
Heilbronn had been blamed, but no one ever talked of 
their services. The world rung with the tidings of con- 
quests and victories, but it was by their hands that they 
had been fought and won." 

The number of the malcontents daily increased, and 
they even attempted by letters (which were fortunately 
intercepted) to seduce the armies on the Rhine and in 
Saxony. Neither the representations of Bernard of 
Weimar nor the stern reproaches of his harsher associate 
in command could suppress the mutiny, while the vehe- 
mence of Horn seemed only to increase the insolence of 
the insurgents. The conditions they insisted on were that 
certain towns should be assigned to each regiment for the 
payment of arrears. Four weeks were allowed to the 
Swedish chancellor to comply with these demands ; and 
in case of refusal they announced that they would pay 
themselves, and never more draw a sword for Sweden. 

These pressing demands made at the very time when 
the military chest was exhausted, and credit at a low ebb, 
greatly embarassed the chancellor. The remedy he saw 
must be found quickly before the contagion should spread 
to the other troops, and he should be deserted by all his 
armies at once. Among all the Swedish generals there 
was only one of sufficient authority and influence with 
the soldiers to put an end to this dispute. The Duke of 
Weimar was the favorite of the army, and his prudent 
moderation had won the good-will of the soldiers, Avhile 
his military experience had excited their admiration. He 
now undertook the task of appeasing the discontented 
troops ; but, aware of his importance, he embraced the 
opportunity to make advantageous stipulations for him- 
self, and to make the embarassment of the chancellor 
subservient to his own views. 

Gustavus Adolphus had flattered him with the pi-omise 
of the Duchy of Franconia, to be formed out of the Bishop- 
rics of Wurtzburg and Bamberg, and he now insisted on 
the performance of this pledge. He at the same time 
demanded the chief command as generalissimo of Sweden. 
The abuse which the Duke of Weimar thus made of his 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 287 

influence so irritated Oxenstiern that, in the first mo- 
ment of his clisiDleasm^e, he gave him his dismissal from the 
Swedish service. But he soon thought better of it, and 
determined, instead of sacrificing so important a leader, 
to attach hitn to the Swedish interests at any cost. He 
therefore granted to him the Franconian bishoprics as a 
fief of the Swedish crown, reserving, however, the two 
fortresses of Wurtzburg and Konigshofen, which were to 
be garrisoned by the Swedes; and also engaged in name 
of the Swedish crown to secure these territories to the 
duke. His demand of the supreme authority was evaded 
ou some specious pretext. The duke did not delay to 
display his gratitude for this valuable grant, and by hia 
influence and activity soon restored ti-anquillity to the 
army. Large sums of money, and still more extensive 
estates, were divided among the oflicers, amounting in 
value to about five millions of dollars, and to which they 
had no other right but that of conquest. In the mean- 
time, however, the oj^portunity for a great undertaking 
had been lost, and the united generals divided their forces 
to oppose the enemy in other quarters. 

Gustavus Horn, after a short inroad into the Upper 
Palatinate and the capture of Neumark, directed his 
march towards the Swabian frontier, where the Imperi- 
alists, strongly reinforced, threatened Wurtemberg. At 
liis approach the enemy retired to the Lake of Constance, 
but only to show the Swedes the road into a district 
hitherto unvisited by war. A post on the entrance to 
Switzerland would be highly serviceable to the Sweden 
and the town of Kostnitz seemed peculiarly well-fitted to 
be a point of communication between him and the con 
federated cantons. Accordingly Gustavus Horn immedi- 
ately commenced the siege of it ; but destitute of artillery, 
for which he was obliged to send to Wirtemberg, he could 
not press the attack with sufiicient vigor to prevent the 
enemy from throwing supplies into the town, which the 
lake afforded them convenient opportunity of doing. 
He therefore, after an ineffectual attempt, quitted the 
place and its neighborhood and hastened to meet a more 
threatening danger upon the Danube. 

At the Emperor's instigation the Cardinal Infante, the 



288 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

brother of Philip IV. of Sj^ain, and the Viceroy of Milan, 
bad raised an army of fourteen thousand men, intended 
to act upon the Rhine independently of Wallenstein, and 
to protect Alsace. This force now appeared in Bavaria, 
under the command of the Duke of Feria, a Spaniard ; 
and that they might be directly employed against the 
Swedes Altringer was ordered to join them with his 
corps. Upon the first intelligence of their approach 
Horn had summoned to his assistance the Palsgrave of 
Birkenfeld from the Rhine ; and, being joined by him 
at Stockach, boldly advanced to meet the enemy's army 
of thirty thousand men. 

The latter had taken the route across the Danube into 
Swabia, where Gustavus Horn came so close upon them 
that the two armies w^re only separated from each other 
by half a German mile. But instead of accepting the offer 
of battle the ImiDerialists moved by the Forest towns 
towards Briesgau and Alsace, where they arrived in time 
to relieve Breysack and to arrest the victorious progress 
of the Rhinegrave, Otto Louis. The latter had shortly 
before taken the Forest towns, and, supported by the 
Palatine of Birkenfeld, who had liberated the Lower 
Palatinate and beaten the Duke of Lorraine out of the 
field, had once more given the superiority to the Swedish 
arms in that quarter. He was now forced to retire 
before the superior numbers of the enemy ; but Horn and 
Birkenfeld quickly advanced to his support, and the 
Imperialists after a brief triumph were again expelled 
from Alsace. The severity of the autumn in which this 
hapless retreat had to be conducted proved fatal to most 
of the Italians; and their leader, the Duke of Feria, died 
of grief at the failure of his enterprise. 

In the meantime Duke Bernard of Weimar had taken 
up his position on the Danube, with eighteen regiments 
of infantry and one hundred and forty squadrons of 
horse, to cover Franconia and to watch the movements 
of the Imperial-Bavarian army upon that river. No 
sooner had Altringer departed to join the Italians under 
Feria than Bernard, profiting by his absence, hastened 
across the Danube, and with the rapidity of lightning 
appeared before Ratisbon. The possession of this town 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 289 

would insure the success of the Swedish designs ujjon 
Bavaria and Austria; it would establish them firmly on 
the Danube, and provide a safe refuge in case of defeat, 
while it alone could give permanence to their conquests 
in that quarter. To defend Ratisbon was the urgent 
advice which the dying Tilly left to the Elector; and 
Gustavus Adolphus had lamented it as an irreparable 
loss that the Bavarians had anticipated him in taking 
possession of this place. Indescribable, therefore, was 
the consternation of Maximilian when Duke Bernard 
suddenly appeared before the town and prepared in 
earnest to besiege it. 

The garrison consisted of not more than fifteen com- 
panies, mostly newly-raised soldiers ; although that num- 
ber was more than sufficient to weary out an enemy of 
far superior force if supported by well-disposed and 
warlike inhabitants. But this was not the greatest dan- 
ger which the Bavarian garrison had to contend against. 
The Protestant inhabitants of Ratisbon, equally jealous 
of their civil and religious freedom, had unwillingly sub- 
mitted to the yoke of Bavaria, and had long looked with 
impatience for the appearance of a deliverer. Bernard's 
arrival before the walls filled them witli lively joy, and 
there was much reason to fear that they would support 
the attempts of the besiegers without by exciting a tumult 
within. In this perplexity the Elector addressed the 
most pressing entreaties to the Emperor and the Duke of 
Friedland to assist him, were it only with five thousand 
men. Seven messengers in succession were despatched 
by Ferdinand to Wallenstein, who promised immediate 
succors, and even announced to the Elector the near 
advance of twelve thousand men under Gallas, but at 
the same time forbade that general, under pain of death, 
to march. Meanwhile the Bavarian commandant of Rat- 
isbon, in the hope of speedy assistance, made the best 
preparations for defence, armed the Roman Catholic 
peasants, disarmed and carefully watched the Protestant 
citizens lest they should attempt any hostile design 
against the garrison. But as no relief arrived, and the 
enemy's artillery incessantly battered the walls, he con- 
sulted his own safety and that of the garrison by an hon^ 



290 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

orable capitulation, and abandoned the Bavarian officiala 
and ecclesiastics to the conqueror's mercy. 

The possession of Ratisbon enlarged the projects of 
the duke, and Bavaria itself now appeared too narrow a 
field for his bold designs. He determined to penetrate 
to the frontiers of Austria, to arm the Protestant peas- 
antry against the Emperor, and restoi-e to them their 
religious liberty. He had already taken Straubingen, 
while another Swedish army was advancing successfully 
along the northern bank of the Danube. At the head of 
his Swedes, bidding defiance to the severity of the 
weather, he reached the mouth of the Iser, Avhich he 
passed in the presence of the Bavarian General Werth, 
who was encamped on that river. Passau and Lintz 
trembled for their fate ; the terrified Emperor redoubled 
his entreaties and commands to Wallenstein to hasten 
with all speed to the relief of the hard-pressed Bavarians. 
But here the victorious Bernard of his own accord 
checked his career of conquest. Having in front of him 
the river Inn, guarded by a number of strong fortresses, 
and behind him two hostile armies, a disaffected country, 
and the river Iser, while his rear was covered by no ten- 
able position, and no intrenchment could be made in the 
frozen ground ; and threatened by the whole force of 
Wallenstein, who had at last resolved to march to the 
Danube, by a timely retreat he escaped the danger of 
being cut off from Ratisbon and surrounded by the 
enemy. He hastened across the Iser to the Danube to 
defend the conquests he had made in the Upper Palatin- 
ate against Wallenstein, and fully resolved not to decline 
a battle, if necessary, with that general. But Wallen- 
stein, who was not disposed for any great exploits on the 
Danube, did not wait for his approach, and before the 
Bavarians could congratulate themselves on his arrival 
he suddenly withdrew again into Bohemia. The duke 
thus ended his victorious campaign, and allowed his 
troops their well-earned repose in winter quarters upon 
an enemy's country. 

While in Swabia the war was thus successfully con- 
ducted by Gustavus Horn, and on the Upper and Lower 
Rhine by the Palatine of Birkenfeld, General Baudissen, 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 291 

and the Rhinegrave, Otto Louis, and by Duke Bernard on. 
the Danube, the reputation of the Swedish arms was as 
gloriously sustained in Lower Saxony and Westphalia by 
the Duke of Lunenburg and the Landgrave of Hesse Cas- 
sel. The fortress of Hamel was taken by Duke George, 
after a brave defence, and a brilliant victory obtained over 
the imperial General Gronsfeld by the united Swedish 
and Hessian armies near Oldendorf. Count Wasaburg, 
a natural son of Gustavus Adolphus, showed himself in 
this battle worthy of his descent. Sixteen pieces of can- 
non, the whole baggage of the Imperialists, together with 
seventy-four colors, fell into the hands of the Swedes; 
three thousand of the enemy perished on the field, and 
nearly the same number were taken prisoners. The town 
of Osnaburg surrendered to the Swedish Colonel Knyp- 
hausen, and Paderborn to the Landgrave of Hesse ; while, 
on the other hand, Biickeburg, a very important place for 
the Swedes, fell into the hands of the Imperialists. The 
Swedish banners were victorious in almost every quarter 
of Germany ; and the year after the death of Gustavus 
left no trace of the loss which had been sustained in the 
person of that great leader. 

In a review of the important events which signalized 
the campaign of 1633 the inactivity of a man of whom 
the highest expectations had been formed justly excites 
astonishment. Among all the generals who distinguished 
themselves in this campaign none could be compared 
with Wallenstein in experience, talents, and reputation ; 
and yet after the battle of Lutzen we lose sight of him 
entirely. The fall of his great rival had left the whole 
theatre of glory open to him ; all Europe Avas now atten- 
tively awaiting those exploits which should efface the 
remembrance of his defeat and still prove to the world 
his military superiority. Nevertheless, he continued inac- 
tive in Bohemia, while the Emperor's losses in Bavaria, 
Lower Saxony, and the Rhine pressingly called for hia 
presence — a conduct equally iinintelligible to friend and 
foe — the terror, and at the same time the last hope of 
the Emperor. After the defeat of Lutzen he had hastened 
into Bohemia, where he instituted the strictest inquiry 
into the conduct of his ofiicers in that battle. Those whom 



292 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the council of war declared guilty of misconduct were 
]3ut to death without mercy, those who had behaved with 
bravery rewarded with princely munificence, and the 
memory of the dead honored by sjjlendid monuments. 
During the winter he oppressed the imperial provinces by 
enormous contributions, and exhausted the Austrian terri- 
tories by his winter quarters, which he purposely avoided 
taking up in an enemy's country. And in the spring of 
1633, instead of being the first to ojDen the campaign with 
this well-chosen and well-appointed army, and to make a 
worthy display of his great abilities, he was the last who 
appeared in the field ; and even then it was an hereditary 
province of Austria which he selected as the seat of war. 
Of all the Austrian provinces Silesia was most exposed 
to danger. Three different armies, a Swedish under 
Count Thurn, a Saxon imder Arnheim and the Duke of 
Lauenburg, and one of Brandenburg under Borgsdorf, 
had at the same time carried the war into this country ; 
they had already taken possession of the most important 
places, and even Breslau had embraced the cause of the 
allies. But this crowd of commanders and armies was 
the very means of saving this province to the Emperor ; 
for the jealousy of the generals, and the mutual hatred of 
the Saxons and the Swedes, never allowed them to act 
with unanimity. Arnheim and Thurn contended for the 
chief command ; the troops of Brandenburg and Saxony 
combined against the Swedes, whom they looked upon as 
troublesome strangers who ought to be got rid of as soon 
as possible. The Saxons, on tlie contrary, lived on a very 
intimate footing with the Imperialists, and the ofiicers of 
both these hostile armies often visited and entertained 
each other. The Imperialists were allowed to remove 
their property without hinderance, and many did not affect 
to conceal that they had received large sums from Vienna. 
Among such equivocal allies the Swedes saw themselves 
sold and betrayed ; and any great enterprise was out of 
the question while so bad an understanding prevailed be- 
tween the troops. General Arnheim, too, was absent the 
greater part of the time; and when he at last returned 
Wallenstein was fast approaching the frontiers with a 
formidable force. 



THE THIRTY YFARS' WAR. 29o 

His army amounted to forty thousand men, while to 
oppose him tlie allies had only twenty-four thousand. 
They nevertheless resolved to give him battle, and 
marched to Munsterberg, where he had formed an in- 
trenched camp. But Wallenstein remained inactive for 
eight days ; he then left his intrenchments and marched 
slowly and with composure to the enemy's camp. But 
even after quitting his position, and when the enemy, em- 
boldened by his past delay, manfully prepared to receive 
him, he declined the opportunity of fighting. The 
caution with which he avoided a battle was imputed to 
fear ; but the well-established reputation of Wallenstein 
enabled him to despise this suspicion. The vanity of 
the allies allowed them not to see that he purposely 
saved them a defeat because a victory at that time would 
not have served his own ends. To convince them of his 
superior power, and that his inactivity proceeded not 
from any fear of them, he put to death the commander 
of a castle that fell into his hands because he had refused 
at once to surrender an untenable place. 

For nine days did the two armies remain within 
musket-shot of each other, when Count Terzky, from the 
camp of the Imperialists, appeared Avith a trumpeter in 
that of the allies inviting General Arnheim to a confer- 
ence. The purport was that Wallenstein, notwithstand- 
ing his superiority, was willing to agree to a cessation of 
arms for six weeks. " He was come," he said, " to con- 
clude a lasting peace with the Swedes, and with the 
princes of the empire, to pay the soldiers, and to satisfy 
every one. All this was in his power ; and if the Aus- 
trian court hesitated to confirm his agreement he would 
unite with the allies, and (as he privately whispered to 
Arnheim) hunt the Emperor to the devil." At the sec- 
ond conference he expressed himself still more plainly to 
Count Thurn. "All the privileges of the Bohemians," 
he engaged, " should be confirmed anew, the exiles re- 
called and restored to their estates, and he himself would 
be the first to resign his share of them. The Jesuits, as 
the authors of all past grievances, should be banished, 
the Swedish crown indemnified by stated paj'-ments, and 
all the superfluous troops on botli sides employed against 



294 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 

the Turks." The last article explained the whole mys- 
tery. " If," he continued, " he should obtain the crown 
of Bohemia all the exiles would have reason to applaud 
his generosity ; perfect toleration of religions should be 
established within the kingdom, the Palatine family be 
reinstated in its rights, and he would accept the Mar- 
graviate of Moravia as a compensation for Mecklenburg. 
The allied armies would then, under his command, ad- 
vance upon Vienna, and, sword in hand, compel the 
Emperor to ratify the treaty." 

Thus was the veil at last removed from the schemes 
over which he had brooded for years in mysterious 
silence. Every circumstance now convinced him that 
not a moment was to be lost in its execution. Nothing 
but a blind confidence in the good fortune and military 
genius of the Duke of Friedland had induced the Em- 
peror, in the face of the remonstrances of Bavaria and 
Spain, and at the expense of his own reputation, to con- 
fer upon this imperious leader such an unlimited com- 
mand. But this belief in Wallenstein's being invincible 
had been much weakened by the inaction, and almost 
entirely overthrown by the defeat at Lutzen. His ene- 
mies at the imperial court now renewed their intrigues ; 
and the Emperor's disappointment at the failure of his 
hopes procured for their remonstrances a favorable recep- 
tion. Wallenstein's whole conduct was now reviewed with 
the most malicious criticism ; his ambitious haughtiness, 
his disobedience to the Emperor's orders, were recalled to 
the recollection of that jealous prince, as well as the com- 
plaints of the Austrian subjects against his boundless 
oppression ; his fidelity was questioned, and alarming 
hints thrown out as to his secret views. These insinua- 
tions, which the conduct of the duke seemed but too well 
to justify, failed not to make a deep impression on Fer- 
dinand ; but the step had been taken, and the great power 
with which Wallenstein had been invested could not be 
taken from him without danger. Insensibly to diminish 
that power was the only course that now remained, and 
to effect this it must in the first place be divided ; but, 
above all, the Emperor's present dependence on the good- 
will of his general put an end to. But even this right 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 295 

had been resigned in his engagement with Wallenstein, 
and the Emperor's own handwriting secured him against 
every attempt to unite another general with him in the 
command or to exercise any immediate act of authority 
over the troops. As this disadvantageous contract could 
neither be kept nor broken recourse was had to artifice. 
Wallenstein was Imperial Generalissimo in Germany, 
but his command extended no furthei", and he could not 
presume to exercise any authority over a foreign army. 
A Spanish army was accordingly raised in Milan and 
marched into Germany under a Spanish general. Wal- 
lenstein now ceased to be indispensable because he was 
no longer supreme, and in case of necessity the Emperor 
was now provided with the means of support even against 
him. 

The duke quickly and deeply felt whence this blow 
came and whither it was aimed. In vain did he protest 
against this violation of the compact to the Cardinal 
Infante ; the Italian army continued its march and he 
was forced to detach General Altringer to join it with a 
reinforcement. He took care, indeed, so closely to fetter 
the latter as to prevent the Italian army from acquiring 
any great reputation in Alsace and Swabia ; but this bold 
step of the court awakened him from his security, and 
warned him of the approach of danger. That he might 
not a second time be deprived of his command and lose the 
fruit of all his labors he must accelerate the accomplish- 
ment of his long-meditated designs. He secured the 
attachment of his troops by removing the doubtful ofii- 
cers and by his liberality to the rest. He had sacrificed 
to the welfare of the army every other order in the state, 
every consideration of justice and humanity, and there- 
fore he reckoned upon their gratitude. At the very- 
moment when he meditated an unparalleled act of ingrati- 
tude against the author of his own good fortune he 
founded all his hopes upon the gratitude which was due 
to himself. 

The leaders of the Silesian armies had no authority 
from their principals to consent on their own discretion 
to such important proposals as those of Wallenstein, and 
they did not even feel themselves warranted in granting 



296 THE THIETY YEAKS' WAR. 

for more than a fortnight tlie cessation of hostilities 
which he demanded. Before the duke disclosed his 
designs to Sweden and Saxony he had deemed it advis 
able to secure the sanction of France to his bold under- 
taking. For this purpose a secret negotiation had been 
carried on with the greatest possible caution and distrust 
by Count Kinsky with Feuquieres, the French ambassador 
at Dresden, and had terminated according to his wishes. 
Feuquieres received orders from his court to promise 
every assistance on the part of France, and to offer the 
duke a considerable pecuniary aid in case of need. 

But it was this excessive caution to secure himself on 
all sides that led to his ruin. The French ambassador 
with astonishment discovered that a plan which, more 
than any other, required secrecy, had been communicated 
to the Swedes and the Saxons. And yet it was generally 
known that the Saxon ministry was in the interests of 
the Emperor, and on, the other hand, the conditions 
offered to the Swedes fell too far short of their expecta- 
tions to be likely to be accepted. Feuquieres therefore 
could not believe that the duke could be serious in calcu- 
lating upon the aid of the latter and the silence of the 
former. He communicated accordingly his doubts and 
anxieties to the Swedish chancellor, who equally dis- 
trusted the views of Wallenstein and disliked his plans. 
Although it was no secret to Oxenstiern that the duke 
had formerly entered into a similar negotiation with Gus- 
tavus Adolphus he could not credit the possibility of 
inducing a whole army to revolt, and of his extravagant 
promises. So dai'ing a design, and such imprudent con- 
duct, seemed not to be consistent with the duke's reserved 
and suspicious temper, and he was the more inclined to 
consider the whole as the result of dissimulation and 
treachery because he had less reason to doubt his pru- 
dence than his honesty. 

Oxenstiern's doubts at last affected Arnheim himself, 
who, in full confidence in Wallenstein's sincerity, had re- 
paired to the chancellor at Gelnhausen to persuade him 
to lend some of his best regiments to the duke to aid him 
ill the execution of the plan. Tliey began to suspect that 
the whole proi^osal was only a sua:-; to disarm the allies, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 297 

uad to betray the flower of their troojDS into the hands of 
the Emperor. Wallenstein's well-known character did 
not contradict the suspicion, and the inconsistencies in 
which he afterwards involved himself entirely destroyed 
all confidence in his sincerity. While he was endeavor- 
ing to draw the Swedes into this alliance, and I'equiring 
the help of their best troops, he declared to Arnheim that 
they must begin Avith expelling the Swedes from the 
empire; and while the Saxon officers, relying upon the 
security of the truce, repaired in great numbers to his 
camp he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize them. 
He was the first to break the truce, which some months 
afterwards he renewed, though not without great diffi- 
culty. All confidence in his sincerity was lost ; his whole 
conduct was regarded as a tissue of deceit and low cun- 
ning, devised to weaken the allies and repair his own 
strength. This indeed he actually did effect, as his own 
array daily augmented, Avhile that of the allies was re- 
duced nearly one-half by desertion and bad provisions. 
But he did not make that use of his superiority which 
Vienna expected. When all men were looking for a deci- 
sive blow to be struck he suddenly renewed -the negotia- 
tions ; and when the truce lulled the allies into security he 
as suddenly recommenced hostilities. All these contradic- 
tions arose out of the double and irreconcilable designs to 
ruin at once the Emperor and the Swedes, and to con- 
clude a separate peace with the Saxons. 

Impatient at the ill-success of his negotiations he at 
last determined to display his strength f the more so as 
the pressing distress within the empire, and the growing 
dissatisfaction of the imperial court, admitted not of his 
making any longer delay. Before the last cessation of 
hostilities General Hoik from Bohemia had attacked the 
circle of Meissen, laid waste everything on his route with 
fire and sword, driven the Elector into his fortresses, 
and taken the town of Leipzig. But the truce in Silesia 
put a period to his ravages, and the consequences of his 
excesses brought him to the grave at Adorf. As soon as 
hostilities were recommenced Wallenstein made a move- 
ment as if he designed to penetrate through Lusatia into 
Saxony, and circulated the report that Piccolomini had 



298 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

already invaded that country. Arnheim immediately 
broke up his camp in Silesia to follow him, and hastened 
to the assistance of the Electorate. By this means the 
Swedes were left exposed, who were encamped in small 
force under Count Thurn at Steinau, on the Oder, and 
this was exactly what Wallenstein desired. He allowed 
the Saxon general to advance sixteen miles towards 
Mcissan, and then, suddenly turning towards the Oder, 
surprised the Swedish army in the most complete security. 
Their cavalry were first beaten by General Schafgotsch, 
who was sent against them, and the infantry completely 
surrounded at Steinau by the duke's army, which followed. 
Wallenstein gave Count Thurn half an hour to deliberate 
whether he would defend himself with two thousand five 
hundred men against more than twenty thousand, or 
surrender at discretion. But there was no room for de- 
liberation. The army surrendered, and the most com- 
plete victory was obtained without bloodshed. Colors, 
baggage, and artillery all fell into the hands of the victors, 
the officers were taken into custody, the privates drafted 
into the army of Wallenstein. And now at last, after a 
banishment of fourteen years, after numberless changes of 
fortune, the author of the Bohemian insurrection, and the 
remote origin of this destructive war, the notorious Count 
Thurn, was in the power of his enemies. With blood- 
thirsty impatience the arrival of this great criminal Avas 
looked for in Vienna, where they already anticipated 
the malicious triumph of sacrificing so distinguished a 
victim to public justice. But to deprive the Jesuits of 
this pleasure was still a sweeter triumph to Wallenstein, 
and Thurn was set at liberty. Fortunately for him he 
knew more than it was prudent to have divulged in 
Vienna, and his enemies were also those of Wallenstem. 
A defeat might have been forgiven in Vi'^nna, but this 
disappointment of their hopes they could not pardon. 
"What should I have done with this madman?" oe 
writes with a malicious sneer to the minister who called 
him to account for this unseasonable magnanimity 
"Would to Heaven the enemy had no generals but such 
as he. At the head of the Swedish army he will rend«^ 
us much better service than in prison." 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 299 

The victory of Steinau was followed by the capture of 
Liegnitz, Grossglogau, and even of Frankfort on the 
Oder. Schafgotsch, who remained in Silesia to complete 
the subjugation of that province, blockaded Breig, and 
threatened Breslau, though in vain, as that free town was 
jealous of its privileges and devoted to the Swedes. 
Colonels Illo and Goetz were ordered by Wallenstein to 
the Warta, to push forward into Pomerania, and to the 
coasts of the Baltic, and actually obtained possession of 
Landsberg, the key of Pomerania. While thus the 
Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Pomerania were 
made to tremble for their dominions, Wallenstein himself 
with the remainder of his army burst suddenly into 
Lusatia, where he took Goerlitz by storm, and forced 
Bautzen to surrender. But his object was merely to 
alarm the Elector of Saxony, not to follow up the ad- 
vantages already obtained ; and therefore, even with the 
sword in his hand, he continued his negotiations for peace 
with Brandenburg and Saxony, but with no better suc- 
cess than before, as the inconsistencies of his conduct had 
destroyed all confidence in his sincerity. He was there- 
fore on the point of turning his whole force in earnest 
against the unfortunate Saxons, and effecting his object 
by force of arms, when circumstances compelled him to 
leave these territories. The conquests of Duke Bernard 
upon the Danube, which threatened Austria itself with 
immediate danger, urgently demanded his presence in 
Bavaria ; and the expulsion of the Saxons and Swedes 
from Silesia deprived him of every pretext for longer 
resisting the imperial orders and leaving the Elector of 
Bavaria without assistance. With his main body, there- 
fore, he immediately set out for the Upper Palatinate, 
and his retreat freed Upper Saxony forever of this formi- 
dable enemy. 

So long as was possible he had delayed to move to the 
rescue of Bavaria, and on every pretext evaded the 
commands of the Emperor. He had, indeed, after reiter- 
ated remonstrances, despatched from Bohemia a rein- 
forcement of some regiments to Count Altringer, who 
was defending the Lech and the Danube against Horn 
and Bernard, but under the express condition of hi» 



300 THE THIETY YEAES' WAE. 

acting merely on the defensive. He referred the Em 
peror and the Elector, whenever they apj^lied to him for 
aid, to Altringer, who, as he publicly gave out, had re- 
ceived unlimited jDowers ; secretly, however, he tied up 
his hands by the strictest injunctions, and even threatened 
him with death if he exceeded his orders. When Duke 
Bernard had appeared before Ratisbon, and the Emperor 
as Avell as the Elector repeated still more urgently their 
demand for succor, he pretended he was about to de- 
spatch General Gallas with a considerable army to the 
Danube ; but this movement also was delayed, and Ratis- 
bon, Straubing, and Cham, as well as the Bishopric of 
Eichstadt, fell into the hands of the Swedes. When at 
last he could no longer neglect the orders of the court 
he marched slowly toward the Bavarian frontier, where 
he invested the town of Cham, which had been taken 
by the Swedes. But no sooner did he learn that on 
the Swedish side a diversion was contemplated by an 
inroad of the Saxons into Bohemia than he availed him- 
self of the report as a pretext for immediately retreating 
into that kingdom. Every consideration, he urged, must 
be postj^oned to the defence and jDreservation of the 
hereditary dominions of the Emperor; and on this j^lca 
he remained firmly fixed in Bohemia, which he guarded 
as if it had been his own j^roperty. And when the 
EmiDcror laid ujion him his commands to move towards 
the Danube, and prevent the Duke of Weimar from 
establishing himself in so dangerous a position on the 
frontiers of Austria, Wallenstein thought proper to con- 
clude the campaign a second time, and quartered his 
troo23s for the winter in this exhausted kingdom. 

Such continued insolence and unexampled contempt 
of the imperial orders, as well as obvious neglect of the 
common cause, joined to his equivocal behavior towards 
the enemy, tended at last to convince the Emperor of the 
truth of those unfavorable reports with regard to the 
duke which were current through Germany. The lat- 
ter had for a long time succeeded in glozing over his 
criminal correspondence with the enemy, and persuading 
the Emperor, still prepossessed in his favor, that the sole 
object of his secret conferences was to obtain peace for 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 301 

Germany. But, impenetrable as he himself believed his 
proceedings to be, in the course of his conduct enough 
transpired to justify the insinuations with which his rivals 
incessantly loaded 'the ear of the Emperor. In order to 
satisfy himself of the truth or falsehood of these rumors 
Ferdinand had already, at different times, sent spies 
into Wallenstein's camp ; but as the duke took the pre- 
caution never to commit anything in writing they re- 
turned with nothing but conjectures. But when at last 
those ministers who had formerly been his champions at 
the court, in consequence of their estates not being- 
exempted by Wallenstein from the general exactions, 
joined his enemies ; when the Elector of Bavaria threat- 
ened, in case of Wallenstein being any longer retained 
in the supreme command, to unite with the Swedes; 
when the Spanish ambassador insisted on his dismissal, 
and threatened in case of refusal to withdraw the subsi- 
dies furnished by his crown, the Emperor found himself 
a second time compelled to deprive him of the command. 

The Emperor's authoritative and direct interference 
with the army soon convinced the duke that the com- 
pact with himself was regarded as at an end, and that 
his dismissal was inevitable. One of his inferior generals 
in Austria, whom he had forbidden under pain of death 
to obey the orders of the court, received the positive 
commands of the Emperor to join the Elector of Bavaria ; 
and Wallenstein himself was imperiously ordered to send 
some regiments to reinforce the army of the Cardinal 
Infante, who was on his march from Italy. All these 
measures convinced him that the plan was finally arranged 
to disarm him by degrees, and at once, when he was weak 
and defenceless, to complete his ruin. 

In self-defence must he now hasten to carry into execu- 
tion the plans which he had originally formed only with 
the view of aggrandizement. He had delayed too long, 
either because the favorable configuration of the stars 
had not yet presented itself, or, as he used to say, to 
check the impatience of his friends, because the time was 
not yet come. The time even now was not come ; but 
the pressure of circumstances no longer allowed him to 
await the favor of the stars, The first step was to assure 



302 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

himself of the sentiments of his principal officers, and 
then to try the attachment of the army, which he had 
so long confidently reckoned on , Three of them, Colonels 
Kinsky, Terzky, and Illo, had long been in his secrets, 
and the two first were further united to his interests by 
the ties of relationship. The same wild ambition, the 
same bitter hatred of the government, and the hope of 
enormous rewards, bound them in the closest manner to 
Wallenstein, wlio, to increase the number of his adherents, 
could stoop to the lowest means. He had once advised 
Colonel Illo to solicit in Vienna the title of count, and 
had promised to back his application with his powerful 
mediation. But he secretly wrote to the ministry, advis- 
ing them to refuse his request, as to grant it would give 
rise to similar demands from others whose services and 
claims were equal to his. On Illo's return to the camp 
Wallenstein immediately demanded to know the success 
of his mission ; and when informed by Illo of its failure, 
he broke out into the bitterest com])laints against the 
court. " Thus," said he, " are our faithful services re- 
wai'ded. My recommendation is disregarded, and your 
merit denied so trifiing a reward ! "Who would any longer 
devote his services to so ungrateful a master ? ISTo, for 
my part, I am henceforth the determined foe of Austria." 
Illo agreed with him, and a close alliance was cemented 
between them. 

But what was known to these three confidants of the 
duke was long an impenetrable secret to the rest; and 
the confidence with which Wallenstein spoke of the devo- 
tion of his officers was founded merely on the favors he 
had lavished on them, and on their known dissatisfaction 
with the court. But this vague presumption must be 
converted into certainty before he could venture to lay 
aside the mask or take any open step against the Em- 
peror. Count Piccolomini, who had distinguished him- 
self by his unparalleled bravery at Lutzen, was the first 
whose fidelity he put to the proof. He had he thought 
gained the attachment of this general by large presents, 
and preferred him to all others because born under the 
same constellations with himself. He disclosed to him 
that in consequence of the Emperor's ingratitude, and the 



THE THIETr YEARS' WAE. 303 

near approach of his own danger, he had irrevocably 
determined entirely to abandon the party of Austria, to 
join the enemy with the best part of his army, and to 
make war upon the House of Austria on all sides of its 
dominions till he had wholly extirpated it. In the 
execution of this plan he jDrincipally reckoned on the 
services of Piccolomini, and had beforehand promised 
him the greatest rewards. When the latter, to conceal 
his amazement at this extraordinary communication, 
spoke of the dangers and obstacles which would oppose 
so hazardous an enterprise, Wallenstein ridiculed his 
fears. "In such enterprises," he maintained, "nothing 
was difficult but the commencement. The stars were 
propitious to him, the opportunity the best that could be 
wished for, and something must always be trusted to 
fortune. His resolution was taken, and if it could not be 
otherwise he would encounter the hazard at the head of 
a thousand horse." Piccolomini was careful not to excite 
Wallenstein's suspicions by longer opposition, and yielded 
apparently to the force of his reasoning. Such was the 
infatuation of the duke that, notwithstanding the warn- 
ings of Count Terzky, he never doubted the sincerity of 
this man, who lost not a moment in communicating to 
the court at Vienna this important conversation. 

Preparatory to taking the last decisive step he, in 
January, 1634, called a meeting of all the commanders of 
the army at Pilsen, whither he had marched after his 
retreat from Bavaria. The Emperor's recent orders to 
spare his hereditary dominions from winter quarterings, 
to recover Ratisbon in the middle of winter, and to 
reduce the army by a detachment of six thousand horse 
to the Cardinal Infante, were matters sufficiently grave to 
be laid before a council of war ; and this plausible pretext 
served to conceal from the curious the real object of the 
meeting. Sweden and Saxony received invitations to be 
present in order to treat with the Duke of Friedland for 
a peace ; to the leaders of more distant armies written 
communications were made. Of the commanders thus 
summoned twenty appeared ; but three most influential, 
Gallas, Colloredo and Altringer were absent. The duke 
reiterated his summons to them, and in the meantime, in 



304 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

expectation of their speedy arrival, jDroceeded to execute 
his designs. 

It was no light task that he had to perform ; a noble- 
man, proud, brave, and jealous of his honor was to 
declare himself capable of the basest treachery, in the 
very presence of those who had been accustomed to re- 
gard him as the reioresentative of majesty, the judge of 
their actions, and the supporter of their laws, and to 
show himself suddenly as a traitor, a cheat, and a rebel. 
It was no easy task either to shake to its foundations a 
legitimate sovereignty, strengthened by time and conse- 
crated by laws and religion ; to dissolve all the charms 
of the senses and the imagination, those formidable 
guardians of an established throne, and to attempt 
forcibly to uproot those invincible feelings of duty which 
plead so loudly and so powerfully in the breast of the 
subject in favor of his sovereign. But, blinded by the 
splendor of a crown, Wallenstein observed not the preci- 
l^ice that yawned beneath his feet ; and in full reliance 
on his own strength, the common case with energetic and 
daring minds, he stopi^ed not to consider the magnitude 
and the number of the difficulties that opposed him. 
Wallenstein saw nothing but an army, partly indifferent 
and partly exasperated against the court, accustomed 
with a blind submission to do homage to his great name, 
to bow to him as their legislator and judge, and with 
trembling reverence to follow his orders as the decrees of 
fate. In the extravagant flatteries which were paid to 
his omnipotence, in the bold abuse of the court govern- 
ment in which a lawless soldiery indulged, and which the 
wild license of the camp excused, he thought he read the 
sentiments of the army; and the boldness with which 
they were ready to censure the monarch's measures, 
passed with him for a readiness to renounce their alle- 
giance to a sovereign so little respected. But that which 
he had regarded as the lightest matter proved the most 
formidable obstacle with which he had to contend ; the 
soldiers' feelings of allegiance were the rock on which his 
hopes were wrecked. Deceived by the profound respect 
in which he was held by these lawless bands, he ascribed 
the whole to his own i^ersonal greatness, without distin- 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 305 

guishing how much he owed to himself and how much to tne 
dignity with which he was invested. All trembled before 
him while he exercised a legimate authority, while obedi- 
ence to him was a duty, and while his consequence was 
supported by the majesty of the sovereign. Greatness hi 
and of itself may excite terror and admiration ; but legit- 
imate greatness alone can inspire reverence and submis- 
sion ; and of this decisive advantage he deprived himself 
the instant he avowed himself a traitor. 

Field-Marshal lUo undertook to learn the sentiments of 
the officers and to prepare them for the step which was 
expected of them. He began by laying before them the 
new orders of the court to the general and the army; 
and by the obnoxious turn he skilfully gave to them he 
found it easy to excite the indignation of the assembly. 
After this well-chosen introduction he expatiated with 
much eloquence upon the merits of the army and the 
general and the ingratitude with which the Emperor was 
accustomed to requite them. Spanish influence, he main- 
tained, governed the court ; the ministry were in the pay 
of Spain; the Duke of Friedland alone had hitherto 
opposed this tyranny, and had thus drawn down upon 
himself the deadly enmity of the Spaniards. To_ remove 
him from the command or to make away with him 
entirely, he continued, had long been the end of their 
desires; and until they could succeed in one or the 
other they endeavored to abridge his power in the field. 
The command was to be placed in the hands of the King 
of Hungary for no other reason than the better to promote 
the Spanish power in Germany; because this prince, as 
the ready instrument of foreign counsels, might be led at 
pleasure. It was merely with the view of weakening the 
army that the six thousand troops were required for the 
Cardinal Infante ; it was solely for the purpose of harass- 
ing it by a winter campaign that they were now called 
on in this inhospitable season to undertake the recovery 
of Ratisbon. The means of subsistence were everywhere 
rendered difficult, while the Jesuits and the ministry 
enriched themselves with the sweat of the provinces and 
squandered the money intended for the pay of the troops. 
The general abandoned by the court acknowledges hU 



306 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

inability to keep his engagements to tlie army. For all tlie 
services which for two-and -twenty years he had rendered 
the House of Austria ; for all the difficulties with which 
he had struggled ; for all the treasures of his own which 
he had expended in the imperial service, a second dis- 
graceful dismissal awaited him. But he was resolved the 
matter should not come to this; he was determined 
voluntarily to resign the command before it should be 
wrested from his hands ; and this, continued the 
orator, is what through me he now makes known to his 
officers. It was now for them to say whether it would be 
advisable to lose such a general. Let each consider who 
was to refund him the sums he had expended in the 
Emperor's service, and where he was now to reap the 
reward of their bravery when he who was their evidence 
was removed from tlie scene." 

A universal cry that they would not allow their general 
to be taken from them interrupted the speaker. Four 
of the principal officers were deputed to lay before him 
the wish of the assembly, and earnestly to request that 
he would not leave the army. The duke made a show 
of resistance and only yielded after the second deputa- 
tion. This concession on his side seemed to demand a 
return on theirs ; as he engaged not to quit the service 
without the knowledge and consent of the generals, he 
required of them, on the other hand, a written promise 
to truly and firmly adhere to him, neither to separate 
nor to allow themselves to be separated from him, and 
to shed their last drop of blood in his defence. Whoever 
should break this covenant was to be regarded as a 
perjBdious traitor, and treated by the rest as a common 
enemy. The express condition, which was added, " As 
long as Wallenstein shall onploy the army in the JEm- 
peror's service,'''' seemed to exclude all misconception, and 
none of the assembled generals hesitated at once to accede 
to a demand apparently so innocent and so reasonable. 

This document was publicly read before an entertain- 
ment which Field-Marshal Illo had expressly prepared 
for the purpose ; it was to be signed after they rose from 
table. The host did his utmost to stupify his guests by 
strong potations; and it was not until he saw thera 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 307 

affected with the wine that he had produced the paper 
for signature. Most of them wrote their names without 
knowing what they were subscribing ; a few only, more 
curious or more distrustful, read the paper over again, 
and discovered with astonishment that the clause " as long 
as Wallenstein shall employ the army for the Emperor's 
service" was omitted. Illo had, in fact, artfully con- 
trived to substitute for the first another copy in which 
these words were wanting. The trick was manifest and 
many refused now to sign. Piccolomini, who had seen 
through the whole cheat, and had been present at this 
scene merely with the view of giving information of the 
whole to the court, forgot himself so far in his cups as to 
drink the Emperor's health. But Count Terzky now 
rose and declared that all were perjured villains who 
sliould recede from their engagement. His menaces, the 
idea of the inevitable danger to which they who resisted 
any longer would be exposed, the example of the rest, 
and Illo's rhetoric, at last overcame their scruples, and 
the paper was signed by all without exception. 

Wallenstein had now effected his purpose ; but the 
unexpected resistance he had met with from the com- 
manders roused him at last from the fond illusions in 
which he had hitherto indulged. Besides, most of the 
names were scrawled so illegibly that some deceit was 
evidently intended. But instead of being recalled to his 
discretion by this warning he gave vent to his injured 
pride in undignified complaints and reproaches. He 
assembled the generals the next day, and undertook 
personally to confirm the whole tenor of the agreement 
which Illo had submitted to them the day before. After 
pouring out the bitterest reproaches and abuse against 
the court, he reminded them of their opposition to the 
proposition of the previous day, and declared that this 
circumstance had induced him to retract his own promise. 
The generals withdrew in silence and confusion ; but 
after a short consultation in the ante-chamber they re- 
turned to apologize for their late conduct and offered to 
sign the paper anew. 

Nothing now remained but to obtain a similar assur- 
ance from the absent generals, or, on their refusal, to 



308 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

seize their persons. Wallenstein renewed his invitation 
to them, and earnestly urged them to hasten their arrival. 
But a rumor of the doings at Pilsen reached them on 
their journey and suddenly stopped their further pro- 
gress. Altringer, on pretence of sickness, remained in the 
strong fortress of Frauenberg. Gallas made his ap- 
pearance, but merely with the design of better qualifying 
himself as an eye-witness, to keep the Emperor informed 
of all Wallenstein's proceedings. The intelligence which 
he and Piccolomini gave at once converted the suspi- 
cions of the court into an alarming certainty. Similar 
disclosures, which were at the same time made from other 
quarters, left no room for further doubt ; and the sudden 
change of the commanders in Austria and Silesia ap- 
peared to be the prelude to some important enterprise. 
The danger was pressing and the i-emedy must be speedy, 
but the court was unwilling to proceed at once to the 
execution of the sentence till the regular forms of justice 
were complied with. Secret instructions were therefore 
issued to the principal officers, on whose fidelity reliance 
could be placed, to seize the persons of the Duke of 
Friedland and of his two associates, lUo and Terzky, and 
keep them in close confinement till they should have an 
opportunity of being heard and of answering for their 
conduct ; but if this could not be accomplished quietly 
the public danger required that they should be taken dead 
or alive. At the same time General Gallas received a 
patent commission, by which these ordei'S of the Emperor 
were made known to the colonels and ofiicers, and the 
army was released from its obedience to the traitor, and 
placed under Lieutanant-General Gallas till a new gene- 
ralissimo could be appointed. In order to bring back the 
seduced and deluded to their duty, and not to drive the 
guilty to despair, a general amnesty was proclaimed in 
regard to all offences against the imperial majesty com- 
mitted at Pilsen. 

General Gallas was not pleased with the honor which 
was done him. He was at Pilsen under the eye of the 
person whose fate he was to dispose of; in the power oi 
an enemy who had a hundred eyes to watch his motions. 
If Wallenstein onoe discovered the secret of his commia^ 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 309 

sion nothing could save him from the effects of his 
vengeance and despair. But if it was thus dangerous to 
be tlie secret depositary of such a commission how much 
more so to execute it ? The sentiments of the generals 
were uncertain; and it was at least doubtful whether, 
after the step they had taken, they would be ready to 
trust the Emperor's promises, and at once to abandon the 
brilliant expectations they had built upon Wallenstein's 
enterprise. It was also hazardous to attempt to lay hands 
on the person of a man who till now had been considered 
inviolable; who from long exercise of supreme power, 
and from habitual obedience, had become the object of 
deepest respect ; who was invested with every attribute 
of outward majesty and inward greatness ; whose very 
aspect inspired terror, and who by a nod disposed of life 
and death ! To seize such a man, like a common criminal, 
in the midst of the guards by whom he was surrounded, 
and in a city apparently devoted to him ; to convert the 
object of this deep and habitual veneration into a subject 
of compassion or of contempt Avas a commission calcu- 
lated to make even the boldest hesitate. So deeply was 
fear and veneration for their general engraven in the 
breasts of the soldiers that even the atrocious crime of 
high treason could not wholly eradicate these sentiments. 
Gallas perceived the impossibility of executing his 
commission under the eyes of the duke; and his most 
anxious wish was before venturing on any steps-to have 
an interview with Altringer. As the long absence of 
the latter had already begun to excite the duke's sus- 
picions Gallas offered to repair in person to Frauenberg, 
and to prevail on Altringer, his relation, to return with 
him. Wallenstein was so pleased with this proof of his 
zeal that he even lent him his own equipage for the 
journey. Rejoicing at the success of his stratagem, he 
left Pilsen without delay, leaving to Count Piccolomini the 
task of watching Wallenstein's further movements. He 
did not fail as he went along to make use of the imperial 
patent, and the sentiments of the troops proved more 
favorable than he had expected. Instead of taking back 
his friend to Pilsen he despatched him to Vienna, to warn 
the Emperor against the intended attack, while he hira- 



BIO THE THIRTt^ YEARS' WAR. 

self repaired to Upper Austria, of which the safety was 
threatened by the near approach of Duke Bernard. In 
Bohemia the towns of Budweiss and Tabor were again 
garrisoned for the Emperor, and every precaution taken 
to oppose with energy the designs of the traitor. 

As Gallas did not appear disposed to return, Pic- 
colomini determined to put Wallenstein's credulity once 
more to the test. He begged to be sent to bring back 
Gallas, and Wallenstein suffered himself a second time to 
be overreached. This inconceivable blindness can only 
be accounted for as the result of his pride, which nevei 
retracted the opinion it had once formed of any person, 
and would not acknowledge even to itself the possibility 
of being deceived. He conveyed Count Piccolomini la 
his own carriage to Lintz, where the latter immediately 
followed the example of Gallas, and even went a ste/j 
farther. He had promised the duke to return. He did 
so, but it was at the head of an army, intending to sur- 
prise the duke in Pilsen. Another army under General 
Suys hastened to Prague to secure that capital in its alle- 
giance and to defend it against the rebels. Gallas at the 
same time announced himself to the different imperial 
armies as the commander-in-chief, from whom they were 
henceforth to receive orders. Placards were circulated 
through all the imperial camps denouncing the duke 
and his four confidants, and absolving the soldiers from 
all obedience to him. 

The example which had been set at Lintz was uni- 
versally followed ; imprecations were showered on the 
traitor, and he was forsaken by all the armies. At last, 
when even Piccolomini returned no more, the mist fell 
from Wallenstein's eyes, and in consternation he awoke 
from his dream. Yet his faith in the truth of astrology 
and in the fidelity of the army was unshaken. Immedi- 
ately after the intelligence of Piccolomini's defection he 
issued orders that in future no commands were to be 
obeyed which did not proceed directly from himself, or 
from Terzky, or Illo. He prepared in all haste to ad- 
vance upon Prague, Avhere he intended to throw off the 
mask and to openly declare against the Emperor. All the 
troops were to assemble before that city, and from thence 



THE THIKTY years' WAR. 3H 

to pour down with rapidity upon Austria. Duke Ber- 
nard, who had joined the conspiracy, was to sup23ort the 
operations of the duke with the Swedish troops, and to 
effect a diversion upon the Danube. 

Terzky was already upon his march towards Prague 5 
and nothing but the want of horses prevented the duke 
from following him with the regiments who still adhered 
faithfully to him. But when with the most anxious ex- 
pectation he awaited intelligence from Prague he sud- 
denly received information of the loss of that town, the 
defection of his generals, the desertion of his troops, the 
discovery of his whole plot, and the rapid advance of 
Piccolomini, who was sworn to his destruction. Sud- 
denly and fearfully had all his projects been ruined — all 
his hopes annihilated. He stood alone, abandoned by all 
to whom he had been a benefactor, betrayed by all on 
whom he had depended. But it is under such circum- 
stances that great minds reveal themselves. Though 
deceived in all his expectations he refused to abandon 
one of his designs ; he despaii-ed of nothing so long as 
life remained. The time was now come when he abso- 
lutely required that assistance which he had so often 
solicited from the Swedes and the Saxons, and when all 
doubts of the sincerity of his purposes must be dispelled. 
And now, when Oxenstiern and Arnheini were convinced 
of the sincirity of his intentions, and were aware of his 
necessities, they no longer hesitated to embrace the 
favorable opportunity and to offer him their protection. 
On the part of Saxony, the Duke Francis Albert of Saxe 
Lauenberg was to join him with four thousand men, and 
Duke Bernard and the Palatine Christian of Birkenfeld 
with six thousand from Sweden, all chosen troops. 

Wallenstein left Pilsen with Terzky's regiment and the 
few who either were or pretended to be faithful to him, 
and hastened to Egra, on the frontiers of the kingdom, 
in order to be near the Upper Palatinate and to facili- 
tate his junction with Duke Bernard. He was not yet 
informed of the decree by which he was proclaimed a 
public enemy and traitor; this tlmnder-stroke awaited 
him at Egra. He still reckoned on the army which Gen- 
eral Schafgotsch was preparing for him in Silesia, and 



312 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

flattered himself with the hope that many even of those 
who had forsaken him would return with the first dawn- 
ing of success. Even during his flight to Egra (so little 
humility had he learned from melancholy experience) he 
was still occupied with the colossal scheme of dethron- 
ing the Emperor. It was under these circumstances that 
one of his suite asked leave to offer him his advice. 
" Under the Emperor," said he, " your highness is certain 
of being a great and respected noble ; with the enemy 
you are at best but a precarious king. It is unwise to 
risk a certainty for uncertainty. The enemy will avail 
themselves of your pergonal influence while the oppor- 
tunity lasts ; but you will ever be regarded with sus- 
picion, and they will always be fearful lest you should 
treat them as you have done the Emperor. Return, 
then, to your alligiance, while there is yet time." " And 
how is that to be done?" said Wallenstein, intei'rupting 
him. " You have forty thousand men-at-arms," rejoined 
he (meaning ducats, which were stamped with the 
figure of an armed man), "take them with you and go 
straight to the imperial court ; then declare that the 
steps you have hitherto taken were merely designed to 
test the fidelity of the Emperor's servants, and of dis- 
tinguishing the loyal from the doubtful ; and since most 
have shown a disposition to revolt, say you are come to 
warn his imperial majesty against those dangerous men. 
Thus you will make those appear as traitors who are 
laboring to represent you as a false villain. At the im- 
perial court a man is sure to be welcome with forty 
thousand ducats, and Friedland will be again as he was 
at first." " The advice is good," said Wallenstein, after 
a pause, " but let the devil trust to it." 

While the duke in his retirement in Egra was ener- 
getically pushing his negotiations with the enemy, con- 
sulting the stars, and indulging in new hopes, the dagger 
which was to put an end to his existence was unsheathed 
almost under his very eyes. The imperial decree which 
proclaimed him an outlaw had not failed of its effect ; 
and an avenging Nemesis ordained that the ungrateful 
should fall beneath the blow of ingratitude. Among 
his officers Wallenstein had particularly distinguished 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 313 

one Leslie,* an Irishman, and had made his fortune. 
This was the man who now felt himself called on to 
execute the sentence against him and to earn the price of 
blood. No sooner had he reached Egra in the suite of 
the duke than he disclosed to the commandant of the 
town, Colonel Butler, and to Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, 
two Protestant Scotchmen, the treasonable designs of the 
duke, which the latter had imprudently enough communi- 
cated to him during the journey. In these two individu- 
als he had found men capable of a determined resolution. 
They were now called upon to chose between treason 
and duty, between their legitimate sovereign and a fugitive 
abandoned rebel ; and though the latter was their com- 
mon benefactor the choice could not remain for a moment 
doubtful. They were solemnly pledged to the allegiance 
of the Emperor, and this duty required them to take the 
most rapid measures against the public enemy. The 
opportunity was favorable ; his evil genius seemed to 
have delivered him into the hands of vengeance. But 
not to encroach on the province of justice they resolved 
to deliver up their victim alive ; and they parted with 
the bold resolve to take their general prisoner. This 
dark plot was buried in the deepest silence, and Wallen- 
stein, far from suspecting his impending ruin, flattered 
himself that in the garrison of Egra he possessed his 
bravest and most faithful champions. 

At this time he became acquainted with the imperial 
proclamations containing his sentence and which had 
been published in all the camps. He now became aware 
of the ixiW extent of the danger which encompassed him, 
the utter impossibility of retracing his steps, his fearfully 
forlorn condition, and the absolute necessity of at once 
trusting himself to the faith and honor of the Emperor's 
enemies. To Leslie he poured forth all the anguish of 
his wounded spii'it, and the vehemence of his agitation 
extracted from him his last remaining secret. He dis- 
closed to this officer his intention to deliver up Egra and 
Ellenbogen, the passes of the kingdom-to the Palatine of 

* Schiller is mistaken as to this point. Leslie was a Scotchman and Buttler 
an Irishman and a papist. He died a general in the Emperor's service, and 
founded at Prague a convent of Irish Franciscans which still exists. 



314 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Birkenfeld, and at the same time informed him of the 
near approach of Duke Bernard, of whose arrival he 
hoped to receive tidings that very night. These dis- 
closures, which Leslie immediately communieated to the 
conspirators, made them change their original plan. The 
urgency of the danger admitted not of half measures. 
Egra might in a moment be in the enemy's hands, and a 
sudden revolution set their prisoner at liberty. To antici- 
pate this mischance they resolved to assassinate him and 
his associates the following night. 

In order to execute this design with less noise it was 
arranged that the fearful deed should be perpetrated at 
an entertainment which Colonel Buttler should give in 
the castle of Egra. All the guests except Wallenstein 
made their appearance, who, being in too great anxiety 
of mind to enjoy company, excused himself. With regard 
to him, therefore, their plan must be again changed ; but 
they resolved to execute their design against the others. 
The three colonels, Illo, Terzky, and William Kinsky, 
came in with careless confidence, and with them Captain 
Neumann, an ofiicer of ability, whose advice Terzky 
sought in every intricate affair. Previous to their arrival 
trusty soldiers of the garrison, to whom the plot had been 
communicated, were admitted into the castle, all the 
avenues leading from it guarded, and six of Buttler's 
dragoons concealed in an appartment close to the ban- 
queting-room, who, on a concerted signal, were to rush 
in and kill the traitors. Without suspecting the danger 
that hung over them, the guests gayly abandoned them- 
selves to the pleasures of the table, and Wallenstein's 
health was drunk in full bumpers, not as a servant of the 
Emperor but as a sovereign prince. The wine opened 
their hearts, and Illo, with exultation, boasted that in 
three days an army would arrive such as Wallenstein had 
never before been at the head of. " Yes," cried Neu- 
mann, " and then he hopes to bathe his hands in Austrian 
blood." During this conversation the desert was brought 

• ■% -r ' 

m, and Leslie gave the concerted signal to raise the draw- 
bridges, while he himself received the keys of the gates. 
In an instant the hall was filled with armed men, who, 
with the unexpected greeting of " Long live Ferdinand ! " 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 315 

placed themselves behind the chairs of the marked guests. 
Surprised, and with a presentiment of th^ir fate, they 
sprang from the table, Kinsky and Terzky were killed 
upon the spot and before they could put themselves upon 
their guard. Neumann during the confusion in the hall 
escaped into the court, where, however, he was instantly 
recognized and cut down. Illo alone had the presence of 
mind to defend himself. He placed his back against a 
window, from whence he poured the bitterest reproaches 
upon Gordon, and challenged him to fight him fairly and 
honorably. After a gallant resistance, in which he slew 
two of his assailants, he fell to tlie ground overpowered 
by numbers and pierced with ten wounds. The deed 
was no sooner accomiDlished than Leslie hastened into the 
town to prevent a tumult. The sentinels at the castle 
gate seeing him running and out of breath, and believing 
he belonged to the rebels, fired their muskets after him, 
but without effect. The firing, however, aroused the 
town guard, and all Leslie's presence of mind was requi- 
site to allay tlie tumult. He hastily detailed to them all 
the circumstances of Wallenstein's conspiracy, the meas- 
ures which had been already taken to counteract it, the 
fate of the four rebels, as well as that which awaited their 
chief. Finding the troops well-disposed he exacted from 
them a new oath of fidelity to the Emperor, and to live 
and die for the good cause. A hundred of Buttler's 
dragoons were sent from the castle into the town to 
patrol the streets, to overawe the partisans of the duke, 
and to prevent tumult. All the gates of Egra were at 
the same time seized, and every avenue to Wallenstein's 
residence, which adjoined the market-i^lace, guarded by a 
numerous and trusty body of troops sufficient to prevent 
either his escape or his receiving any assistance from 
without. 

But before they proceeded finally to execute the^ deed 
a long conference was held among the conspirators in the 
castle whether they should kill him or content themselves 
with making him prisoner. Besprinkled as they were 
with the blood, and deliberating almost over the very 
corpses of his murdered associates, even these furious 
men yet shuddered at the horror of taking away so illus- 



316 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

trious a life. They saw him before their mind's eye 
their leader in battle in the days of his good fortune, 
surrounded by his victorious army, clothed with all the 
pomp of military greatness ; and long-accustomed awe 
again seized their minds. But this transitory emotion 
was soon effaced by the thought of the immediate danger. 
They remembered the hints which Neumann and Illo had 
thrown out at table, the near approach of a formidable 
army of Swedes and Saxons, and they clearly saw that 
the death of the traitor was their only chance of safety. 
They adhered, therefore, to their first resolution, and 
Captain Deveroux, an Irishman, who had already been 
retained for the murderous purpose, received decisive 
orders to act. 

While these three officers were thus deciding upon his 
fate in the castle of Egra, Wallenstein was occupied in 
reading the stars with Seni. "The danger is not yet 
over, said the astrologer, with prophetic spirit, " It is,''^ 
replied the duke, who would give the law even to heaven. 
"But," he continued with equally prophetic spirit, "that 
thou fi-iend Seni thyself shall soon be thrown into prison, 
that also is written in the stars." The astrologer had 
taken his leave and Wallenstein had retired to bed, when 
Captain Deveroux appeared before his residence with six 
halberdiers, and was immediately admitted by the guard, 
who were accustomed to see him visit the general at all 
hours. A page who met him upon the stairs and attempted 
to raise an alarm was run through the body with a pike. 
In the ante-chamber the assassins met a servant who had 
just come out of the sleeping-room of his master and had 
taken with him the key. Putting his finger upon his 
mouth the terrified domestic made a sign to them to make 
no noise, as the duke was asleep. "Friend," cried 
Deveroux, " it is time to awake him ; " and with these 
wards he rushed against the door, which was also bolted 
from within, and burst it open. 

Wallenstein had been roused from his first sleep by the 
report of a musket which had accidentally gone off, and 
had sprung to the window to call the guard. At the same 
moment he heard from the adjoining building the shrieks 
of the Countesses Terzky and Kinsky, who had just 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 317 

learned the violent fate of their husbands. Ere he had 
time to reflect on these terrible events Deveroux, with 
the other murderers, was in his chamber. The duke was 
>n his shirt, as he had leaped out of bed, and leaning on a 
table near the window. "Art thou the villain," cried Deve- 
roux to him, " who intends to deliver up the Emperor's 
troops to the enemy, and to tear the crown from the head 
of his majesty? Now thou must die ! " He paused for 
a few moments as if expecting an answer ; but scorn and 
astonishment kept Wallenstein silent. Throwing his arms 
wide open he received in his breast the deadly blow of 
the halberts, and, without uttering a groan, fell weltering 
in his blood. 

The next day an express arrived from the Duke of 
Lauenburg announcing his approach. The messenger was 
secured, and another in Wallenstein's livery despatched to 
tlie duke to decoy him into Egra. The stratagem suc- 
ceeded, and Francis Albert fell into the hands of the 
enemy. Duke Bernard of Weimar, who was on his march 
towards Egra, Avas nearly sharing the same fate. Fortu- 
nately he heard of Wallenstein's death in time to save 
himself by a retreat. Ferdinand shed a tear over the fate 
of_ his general, and ordered three thousand masses to be 
said for his soul at Vienna; but at the same time he did 
not forget to reward his assassins with gold chains, cham- 
berlains' keys, dignities, and estates. 

Thus did Wallenstein, at the age of fifty, terminate his 
active and extraordinary life. To ambition he owed both 
his greatness and his ruin ; with all his failings he pos- 
sessed great^ and admirable qualities, and had he kept 
himself within due bounds he would have lived and died 
without an equal. The virtues of the ruler and of the 
hero, prudence, justice, firmness, and courage, are strik- 
ingly prominent features in his character ; but he wanted 
the gentler virtues of the man which adorn the hero and 
make the ruler beloved. Terror was the talisman with 
which he worked ; extreme in his punishments as in his 
rewards, he knew how to keep alive the zeal of his fol- 
lowers, while no general of ancient or modern times could 
boast of being obeyed with equal alacrity. Submission 
to his will was more prized by him than bravery; for if 



318 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the soldiers work by the latter it is on the former that 
the general depends. He continually kept up the obe- 
dience of his troops by capricious orders, and profusely 
rewarded tlie readiness to obey even in trifles, because 
he looked rather to the act itself than its object. He once 
issued a decree, with the penalty of death on disobedience 
that none but red sashes should be worn in the army. A 
captain of horse no sooner heard the order than pulling 
off his gold-embroidered sash he trampled it under foot ; 
Wallenstein, on being informed of the circumstance, pro- 
moted him on the spot to the rank of colonel. His com- 
prehensive glance was always directed to the whole, and 
in all his apparent caprice he steadily kept in view some 
general scope or bearing. The robberies committed by 
the soldiers in a friendly country had led to the severest 
orders against marauders ; and all who should be caught 
thieving were threatened with the halter. Wallenstein 
himself having met a straggler in the open country upon 
the field commanded him to be seized without trial as a 
transgressor of the law, and in his usual voice of thunder 
exclaimed, "Hang the fellow," against which no opposition 
ever availed. The soldier pleaded and proved his in- 
nocence, but the irrevocable sentence had gone forth. 
" Hang, then, innocent," cried the inexorable Wallenstein, 
" the guilty will have then more reason to tremble." 
Preparations were already making to execute the sentence 
when the soldier, who gave himself up for lost, formed the 
desperate resolution of not dying without revenge. He 
fell furiously upon his judge, but was overpowered by 
numbers and disarmed before he could fulfil his design. 
" Now let him go," said the duke, " it will excite sufficient 
terror." 

His munificence was supported by an immense income, 
which was estimated at three millions of florins yearly, 
without reckoning the enormous sums which he raised 
under the name of contributions. His liberality and 
clearness of understanding raised him above the religious 
prejudices of his age; and the Jesuits never forgave him 
for having seen through their system and for regarding 
the Pope as notliing more than a bishop of Rome. 

But as no one ever yet came to a fortunate end who quar 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 319 

relied with the Church, Wallenstein also must augment 
the number of its victims. Through the intrigues of 
monks he lost at Ratisbon the command of the army, and 
at Egra his life; by the same arts, perhaps, he lost, what 
was of more consequence, his honorable name and good 
repute with posterity. I^or in justice it must be ad- 
mitted that the pens which have traced the history of 
this extraordinary man are not untinged with partiality, 
and that the treachery of the duke, and his designs upon 
the throne of Bohemia, rest not so much upon proven 
facts as upon probable conjecture, No documents have 
yet been brought to light which disclose with historical 
certainty the secret motives of his conduct; and among 
all his public and well-attested actions there is, perhaps, 
not one which could not have had an innocent end. 
Many of his most obnoxious measures proved nothing 
but the earnest wish he entertained for peace ; most of 
the others are explained and justified by the well-founded 
distrust he entei'tained of the Emperor and the excus- 
able wish of maintaining his own importance. It is true 
that his conduct towards the Elector of Bavaria looks 
too like an unworthy revenge and the dictates of an im- 
placable spirit; but still none of his actions, perhaps, 
warrant us in holding his treason to be proved. If 
necessity and despair at last forced him to deserve the 
sentence which had been pronounced against him while 
innocent, still this, if true, will not justify that sentence. 
Thus Wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but he 
became a rebel because he fell. Unfortunate in life that 
he made a victorious party his enemy, and still more 
unfortunate in death that the same party survived him 
and wrote his history. 



BOOK V. 



Wallenstein' 8 death rendered necessary the appoint- 
ment of a new generalissimo ; and the Emperor yielded 
at last to the advice of the Spaniards to raise his son 
Ferdinand, King of Hungary, to that dignity. Under 



320 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

him Count Gallas commanded, who performed the func- 
tions of commander-in-chief, while the prince brought to 
this post nothing but his name and dignity. A consid- 
erable force was soon assembled under Ferdinand ; the 
Duke of Lorraine brought up a considerable body of 
auxiliaries in person, and the Cardinal Infante joined 
him from Italy with ten thousand men. In order to 
drive the enemy from the Danube the new general 
undertook the entei'prise in which his predecessor had 
failed, the siege of Ratisbon. In vain did Duke Bernard 
of Weimar penetrate into the interior of Bavaria with a 
view to draw the enemy from the town ; Ferdinand con- 
tinued to press the siege with vigor, and the city, after a 
most obstinate resistance, was obliged to open its gates 
to him. Donauwerth soon shared the same fate, and 
Nordlingen in Swabia was now invested. The loss of 
so many of the imperial cities was severely felt by the 
Swedish party; as the friendship of these towns had so 
largely contributed to the success of their arms, indiffer- 
ence to their fate would have been inexcusable. It 
would have been an indelible disgrace had they deserted 
their confederates in their need, and abandoned them to 
the revenge of an implacable conqueror. Moved by 
these considerations the Swedish army, under the com- 
mand of Horn and Bernard of Weimar, advanced upon 
Nordlingen, determined to relieve it even at the expense 
of a battle. 

The undertaking was a dangerous one, for in numbers 
the enemy was greatly superior to that of the Swedes. 
There was also a further reason for avoiding a battle at 
present ; the enemy's force was likely soon to divide, the 
Italian trooiDS being destined for the Netherlands. In 
the meantime such a position might be taken up as to 
cover Nordlingen and cut off their supplies. All these 
grounds were strongly urged by Gustavus Horn in the 
Swedish council of war ; but his remonstrances were 
disregarded by men who, intoxicated by a long career of 
success, mistook the suggestions of prudence for the voice 
of timidity. Overborne by the superior influence of 
Duke Bernard, Gustavus Horn was compelled to risk a 
contest whose unfavorable issue a dark forebodins: seemed 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 321 

already to announce. The fate of the battle depended 
upon the possession of a height which commanded the 
imperial camp. An attempt to occupy it during the 
night failed, as the tedious transport of the artillery 
through woods and hollow ways delayed the arrival 
of the troops. When the Swedes arrived about mid- 
night they found the heights in possession of the enemy, 
strongly intrenched. They waited, therefore, for day- 
break to carry them by storm. Their impetuous courage 
surmounted every obstacle ; the intrenchments, which 
were in the form of a crescent, were successfully scaled 
by each of the two brigades appointed to the service ; 
but as they entered at the same moment from opposite 
sides they met and threw each other into confusion. At 
this unfortunate moment a barrel of powder blew up 
and created the greatest disorder among the Swedes. 
The imperial cavalry charged upon their broken ranks 
and the flight became universal. No persuasion on the 
part of their general could induce the fugitives to renew 
the assault. 

He resolved, therefore, in order to carry this important 
post, to lead fresh troops to the attack. But in the inte- 
rim some Spanish regiments had marched in, and every 
attempt to gain it was repulsed by their heroic intre- 
pidity. One of the duke's own regiments advanced seven 
times, and was as often driven back. The disadvantage 
of not occupying this post in time was quickly and sen- 
sibly felt. The fire of the enemy's artillery from the 
heights caused such slaughter in the adjacent wing of 
the Swedes that Horn, who commanded there, was 
forced to give orders to retire. Instead of being able to 
cover the retreat of his colleague, and to check the pur- 
suit of the enemy, Duke Bernard, overpowered by 
numbers, was himself driven into the plain, where his 
routed cavalry spread confusion among Horn's brigade and 
rendered the defeat comj^lete. Almost the entire infan- 
try were killed or taken prisoners. More than twelve 
thousand men remained dead upon the field of battle; 
eighty field-pieces, about four thousand wagons, and three 
hundred standards and colors fell into the hands of the 
Imperialists. Horn himself, with three other generals, 



322 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

Avere taken prisoners. Duke Bernard with difficulty 
saved a feeble remnant of his army, which joined him at 
Frankfort. 

The defeat at ISTordlingen cost the Swedish Chancellor 
the second sleepless night* he had passed in Germany. 
The conseqiiences of this disaster were terrible. The 
Swedes had lost by it at once their superiority in tlie 
field, and with it the confidence of their confederates, 
which they had gained solely by their jDrevious military 
success. A dangerous division threatened the Protestant 
Confederation with ruin. Consternation and terror seized 
upon the whole party, while the Papists arose with ex- 
ulting triumph from the deep humiliation into which they 
had sunk. Swabia and the adjacent circles first felt the 
consequences of the defeat of Nordlingen ; and Wirtem- 
berg in particular was overrun by the conquering army. 
All the members of the League of Heilbronn trembled at 
the prospect of the Emperor's revenge ; those who could 
fled to Strasburg, while the helpless free cities awaited 
their fate with alarm. A little more of moderation 
towards the conquered would have quickly reduced all 
the weaker states under the Emperor's authority ; but the 
severity which was practised, even against those who 
voluntarily surrendered, drove the rest to despair, and 
roused them to a vigorous resistance. 

In this perplexity all looked to Oxenstiern for counsel 
and assistance ; Oxenstiern a2:)plied for both to the Ger- 
man States. Troops were wanted, money likewise to 
raise new levies and to pay to the old the arrears which 
the men were clamorously demanding. Oxenstiern ad- 
dressed himself to the Elector of Saxony ; but he shame- 
fully abandoned the Swedish cause to negotiate for a 
separate peace with the Emperor at Pirna. He solicited 
aid from the Lower Saxon States; but tliey, long wearied 
of the Swedish pretensions and demands for monej'^, now 
thought only of tliemselves ; and George, Duke of Lunen- 
burg, in place of flying to the assistance of LTpper Ger- 
many, laid siege to Mind en, with the intention of keep- 
ing possession of it for liimself. Abandoned by his Ger- 
man allies, the cliancellor exerted himself to obtain the 

* The first was occasioued by the death, of Gustavus Adolphus. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 323 

assistance of foreign powers. England, Holland, and 
Venice were applied to for troops and money ; and, driven 
to the last extremity, the chancellor reluctantly resolved 
to take the disagreeable step which he had so long 
avoided, and to throw himself under the protection of 
France. 

The moment had at last arrived which Richelieu had 
long waited for with impatience. Nothing, he was aware, 
but°the impossibility of saving themselves by any other 
means could induce the Protestant States in Germany to 
support the pretensions of France upon Alsace. This 
extreme necessity had now arrived ; the assistance of 
that power was indispensable, and she was resolved to be 
well paid for the active part which she was about to take 
in the German war. Full of lustre and dignity it now 
came upon the political stage. Oxenstiern, who felt little 
reluctance in bestowing the rights and possessions of the 
empire, had already ceded the fortress of Philipsburg, 
and the other long-coveted places. The Protestants of 
Upper Germany now, in their own names, sent a special 
embassy to Richelieu, requesting him to take Alsace, the 
fortress of Breyssach, which was still to be recovered 
from the enemy, and all the places upon the Upper Rhine, 
which were the keys of Germany, under the protection of 
France. What was implied by French protection had 
been seen in the conduct of France towards the Bishoprics 
of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which it had held for centu- 
ries against the rightful owners. Treves was already in 
the possession of French garrisons; Lorraine was in a 
manner conquered, as it might at any time be overrun by 
an army, and could not alone and with its own strength 
withstand its formidable neighbor. France now enter- 
tained the hope of adding Alsace to its large and numer- 
ous possessions, and, — since a treaty was soon to be 
concluded with the Dutch for the partition of the Spanish 
Netherlands -- the prospect of making the Rhine its 
natural boundary towards Germany. Thus shamefully 
were the rights of Germany sacrificed by the German 
States to this treacherous and grasping power, which, un- 
der the mask of a disinterested friendship, aimed only at 
its own aggrandizement ; and while it boldly claimed the 



324 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

honorable title of a protectress, was solely occupied with 
promoting its own schemes and advancing its own inter- 
ests amid the general confusion. 

In return for these important cessions France engaged 
to effect a diversion in favor of the Swedes by commenc- 
ing hostilities against the Spaniards; and if this should 
lead to an open breach with the Emperor, to maintain aa 
army upon the German side of the Rhine, which was to 
act in conjunction with the Swedes and Germans against 
Austria. For a war with Spain the Spaniards themselves 
soon afforded the desired pretext. Making an inroad 
from the Netherlands upon the city of Treves, they cut 
in pieces the French garrison ; and, in open violation of 
the law of nations, made prisoner the Elector, who had 
placed himself under the protection of France, and carried 
him into Flanders. When the Cardinal Infante, as Vice- 
roy of the Spanish Netherlands, refused satisfaction for 
these injuries, and delayed to restore the prince to liberty, 
Richelieu, after the old custom, formally proclaimed war 
at Brussels by a herald, and the war was at once opened by 
three different armies in Milan, in the Yalteline, and in 
Flanders. The French minister was less anxious to 
commence hostilities with the Emperor, which promised 
fewer advantages and threatened greater difficulties. A 
fourth army, however, was detached across the Rhine 
into Germany, under the command of Cardinal Lavalette, 
which was to act in conjunction with Duke Bernard 
against the Emperor without a previous declaration of 
war. 

A heavier blow for the Swedes than even the defeat of 
Nordlingen was the reconciliation of the Elector of 
Saxony with the Erapei'or. After many fruitless attempts, 
both to bring about and to prevent it, it was at last ef- 
fected in 1634, at Pirna, and the following year reduced 
into a formal treaty of peace at Prague. The Elector of 
Saxony had always viewed with jealousy the pretensions 
of the Swedes in Germany ; and his aversion to this for- 
eign power, which now gave laws within the Empii-e, had 
grown with every fresh requisition that Oxenstiern was 
obliged to make upon the German States. This ill- 
feeling was kept alive by the Spanish court, who labored 



THE THIRTY years' WAR. B25 

earnestly to effect a peace between Saxony and the Em- 
peror. Wearied with the calamities of a long and de- 
structive contest which had selected Saxony above all 
others for its theatre ; grieved by the miseries which both 
friend and foe inflicted upon his subjects, and seduced Ly 
the tempting propositions of the House of Austria, the 
Elector at last abandoned the common cause ; and caring 
little for the fate of his confederates, or the liberties of 
Germany, thought only of securing his own advantages, 
even at the expense of the whole body. 

In fact the misery of Germany had risen to such a 
height that all' clamorously vociferated for peace ; and 
even the most disadvantageous pacification would have 
been hailed as a blessing from heaven. The j^lains which 
formerly had been thronged with a happy and industrious 
Ijoj^ulation, where nature had lavished her choicest gifts, 
and plenty and prosperity had reigned, were now a wild 
and desolate wilderness. The fields, abandoned by the 
industrious husbandman, lay waste and uncultivated; and 
no sooner had the young crops given the promise of a 
smiling harvest than a single march destroyed the labors 
of a year and blasted the last hope of an afilicted peas- 
antry. Burnt castles, wasted fields, villages in ashes, 
were to be seen extending far and wide on all sides, while 
the ruined peasantry had no resource left but to swell the 
horde of incendiaries, and fearfully to retaliate upon their 
fellows, who had hitherto been spared the miseries which 
they themselves had suffered. The only safeguard against 
oppression was to become an oppressor. The towns 
groaned under the licentiousness of undisciplined ar.d 
plundering garrisons, who seized and wasted the property 
of the citizens, and under the license of their position com- 
mitted the most remorseless devastation and cruelty. If 
the march of an army converted whole provinces into des- 
erts, if others were impoverished by winter quarters or 
exhausted by contributions, these still were but passing 
evils, and the industry of a year might efface the miseries 
of a few months. But there was no relief for those who 
had a garrison within their walls or in the neighborhood ; 
even the change of fortune could not improve their un- 
fortunate fate, since the victor trod in the steps of the 



326 THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 

vanquished, and friends were not more merciful than 
enemies. The neglected farms, the destruction of the 
crops, and the numerous armies which overran the ex- 
hausted country, were inevitably followed by scarcity 
and the high price of provisions, which in the later years 
was still further increased by a general failure in the crops. 
The crowding together of men in camps and quarters — 
want upon one side and excesses on the other, occasioned 
contagious distempers, which were more fatal than even 
the sword. In this long and general confusion all the 
bonds of social life were broken up; — respect for the 
rights of their fellow-men, the fear of the laws, purity of 
morals, honor, and religion were laid aside where might 
ruled supreme with iron sceptre. Under the shelter of 
anarchy and impunity every vice flourished, and men 
became as wild as the country. No station was too 
dignified for outrage, no property too holy for rapine and 
avarice. In a word, the soldier reigned supreme; and 
that most brutal of despots often made his own officer 
feel his power. The leader of an ai'my was a far more 
important person within any country where he appeared 
than its lawful governor, who was frequently obliged to 
fly before him into his own castles for safety. Germany 
swarmed with these petty tyrants, and the country suffered 
equally from its enemies and its protectors. These wounds 
rankled the deeper when the unhappy victims recollected 
that Germany was sacrificed to the ambition of foreign 
powers, who for their own ends prolonged the miseries 
of war. Germany bled under the scourge to extend the 
conquests and influence of Sweden ; and the torch of 
discord was kept alive within the Empire that the 
services of Richelieu might be rendered indispensable in 
France. 

But in truth it was not merely interested voices whicli 
opposed a peace ; and if both Sweden and the German 
States were anxious from corrupt motives to prolong the 
conflict they were seconded in their views by sound 
policy. After the defeat of Nordlingen an equitable 
peace was not to be expected from the Emperor; and 
this being the case, was it not too great a sacrifice, after 
seventeen years of war with all its miseries, to abandon 



WAR. 327 

the contest, not only without advantage, but even with 
loss ? What would avail so much bloodshed if all was to 
remain as it had been ; if their rights and pretensions 
were neither larger nor safer ; if all that had been won 
with so much difficulty was to be surrendered for a peace 
at any cost ? Would it not be better to endure for two 
or three years more the burdens they had borne so long, 
and to reap at last some recompense for twenty years of 
suffering ? Neither was it doubtful that peace might at 
last be obtained on favorable terms, if only the Swedes 
and the German Protestants should continue united in the 
cabinet and in the field, and pursued their common in- 
terests with a reciprocal sympathy and zeal. Their 
divisions alone had rendered the enemy formidable, and 
l^rotracted the acquisition of a lasting and general peace. 
And this great evil the Elector of Saxony had brought 
upon the Protestant cause by concluding a separate treaty 
with Austria. 

He, indeed, had commenced his negotiations with the 
Emperor even before the battle of Nordlingen ; and the 
unfortunate issue of that battle only accelerated their con- 
clusion. By it all his confidence in the Swedes was lost ; 
and it was even doubted whether they would ever recover 
from the blow. The jealousies among their generals, the 
insubordination of the army, and the exhaustion of the 
Swedish kingdom, shut out any reasonable prospect of 
effective assistance on their part. The Elector hastened, 
therefore, to profit by the Emperor's magnanimity, who, 
even after the battle of Nordlingen, did not recall the 
conditions pi'eviously offered. While Oxenstiern, who 
had assembled the estates in Frankfort, made further 
demands upon them and him, the Emperor, on the con- 
trary, made concessions ; and therefore it required no 
long consideration to decide between them. 

In the meantime, however, he was anxious to escape 
the charge of sacrificing the common cause and attending 
only to his own interests. All the German States, and 
even the Swedes, were publicly invited to become parties 
to this peace, although Saxony and the Emperor were 
the only powers who deliberated upon it, and who assumed 
the right to give law to Germany. By this self-appointed 



328 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

tribunal tLe grievances of the Protestants were discussed, 
their rights and privileges decided, and even the fate of 
religions determined without the presence of those who 
were most deeply interested in it. Between them a 
general peace was resolved on, and it was to be enforced 
by an imperial army of execution as a formal decree of 
the Empire. Whoever opposed it was to be treated as 
a public enemy ; and thus, contrary to their rights, the 
states were to be compelled to acknowledge a law in the 
passing of which they had no share. Thus, even in form, 
the pacification at Prague was an arbitrary measure ; nor 
was it less so in its contents. The Edict of Restitution 
had been the chief cause of dispute between the Elector 
and the Emperor ; and therefore it was first considered in 
their deliberations. Without formally annulling it, it 
was determined by the treaty of Prague that all the ecclesi- 
astical domains holding immediately of the Empire, and, 
among the mediate ones, those which had been seized by 
the Protestants subsequently to the treaty at Passau, 
should for forty years remain in the same position as 
they had been in before the Edict of Restitution, but 
Avithout any formal decision of the Diet to that effect. 
Before the expiration of this term a commission, composed 
of equal numbers of both religions, should proceed to settle 
the matter peaceably and according to law ; and if this 
commission should be unable to come to a decision each 
party should remain in possession of the rights which it 
had exercised before the Edict of Restitution. This ar- 
rangement, therefore, far from removing the grounds of 
dissension, only suspended the dispute for a time; and 
this article of the treaty of Prague only covered the 
embers of a future war. 

The Archbishopric of Magdeburg remained in posses- 
sion of Prince Augustus of Saxony, and Halberstadt in 
that of the Archduke Leopold William. Four estates 
were taken from the territory of Magdeburg and given 
to Saxony, for which the Administrator of Magdeburg, 
Christian William of Brandenburg, was otherwise to be 
indemnified. The Dukes of Mecklenburg, upon acceding 
to this treaty, Avere to be acknowledged as rightful pos- 
sessors of their territories, in which the magnanimity of 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 329 

Gustavus Adolphus had long ago reinstated them. Do- 
nauwerth recovered its liberties. The important claims 
of the heirs of the Palatine, however important it might 
be for the Protestant cause not to lose this electorate vote 
in the Diet, were passed over in consequence of the ani- 
mosity subsisting between the Lutherans and the Cal- 
vinists All the conquests which, in the course of the 
war had been made by the German States, or by the 
Leao-ue and the Emperor, were to be mutually restored; 
all vvhich had been appropriated by the foreign powers ot 
France and Sweden was to be forcibly wrested from 
them by the united powers. The troops of the contract- 
ino' parties were to be formed into one imperial army, 
which, supported and paid by the Empire, was, by force 
of arms, to carry into execution the covenants of the 

treaty. _ _, 

As the peace of Prague was intended to serve as a 
general law of the Empire, those points which did not 
immediately affect the latter formed the subject of a 
separate treaty. By it Lusatia was ceded to the Elector 
of Saxony as a fief of Bohemia, and special articles guar- 
anteed the freedom of religion of this country and of 

Silesia. 

All the Protestant states were invited to accede to the 
treaty of Prague, and on that condition were to benefit 
by the amnesty. The Princes of Wurteraberg and Baden, 
whose territories the Emperor was already in possession 
of, and which he was not disposed to restore uncondi- 
tionally ; and such vassals of Austria as had borne arras 
ao-ainst their sovereign; and those states which, under 
the direction of Oxenstiern, composed the council of the 
Upper German Circle, were excluded from the treaty, — 
not so much with the view of continuing the war against 
them as of compelling them to purchase peace at a dearer 
rate. Their territories were to be retained in pledge till 
everything should be restored to its former footing. Such 
was the treaty of Prague. Equal justice, however, towards 
all might perhaps have restored confidence between the 
head of the Empire and its members — between the 
Protestants and the Roman Catholics —between the 
Refirmed and the Lutheran party; and the Swedes, 



330 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

abandoned by all their allies, would in all probability 
have been driven from Germany with disgrace. But this 
inequality strengthened in those who were more severely 
treated the s|)irit of mistrust and opposition, and made 
it an easier task for the Swedes to keep alive the flames 
of war and to maintain a party in Germany. 

The peace of Prague, as might have been expected, was 
received with very various feelings throughout Germany. 
The attempt to conciliate both parties had rendered it 
obnoxious to both. The Protestants complained of the 
restraints imposed upon them ; the Roman Catholics 
thought that these hated sectaries had been favored at 
the expense of the true church. In the oiDinion of the 
latter the church had been deprived of its inalienable 
rights by the concession to the Protestants of forty years' 
undisturbed possession of the ecclesiastical benefices ; 
while the former murmured that the interests of the 
Protestant church had been betrayed because toleration 
had not been granted to their coreligionists in the 
Austrian dominions. But no one was so bitterly re- 
proached as the Elector of Saxony, who was publicly 
denounced as a deserter, a traitor to religion and the 
liberties of the Empire, and a confederate of the Em- 
peror. 

In the meantime he consoled himself with the triumph of 
seeing most of the Protestant states compelled by neces- 
sity to embrace this peace. The Elector of Brandenburg, 
Duke William of Weimar, the Princes of Anhalt, the Dukos 
of Mecklenburg, tlie Dukes of Brunswick-Lunenbui-g, the 
Hanse towns, and most of the imperial cities acceded 
to it. The Landgrave William of Hesse long wavered, or 
affected to do so, in order to gain time and to regulate his 
measures by the course of events. He had conquered 
several fertile provinces of Westphalia, and derived from 
them principally the means of continuing the war : these, 
by the terms of the treaty, he was bound to restore. 
Bernard, Duke of Weimar, whose states as yet existed 
only on paper, as a belligerent power was not affected by 
the treaty, but as a general was so materially; and in 
either view he must equally be disposed to reject it. His 
'Rrhole riches consisted in his bravery, his possessions in 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 331 

his sword. War alone gave him greatness and importance, 
and war alone could realize the projects which his ambition 
suggested. 

But of all who declaimed against the treaty of Prague 
none were so loud in their clamors as the Swedes, and 
none had so much reason for their opposition. Invited to 
Germany by the Germans themselves, the champions of 
the Protestant church and the freedom of the states 
which they had defended with so much bloodshed and 
with the sacred life of their king, they now saw them- 
selves suddenly and shamefully abandoned, disapjDointed 
in all their hopes, without reward and without gratitude 
driven from the empire for which they had toiled and 
bled, and exposed to the ridicule of the enemy by the very 
princes who owed everything to them. No satisfaction, 
no indemnification for the expenses which they had in- 
curred, no equivalent for the conquests which they were 
to leave behind tliem, was provided, by the treaty of 
Prague. They were to be dismissed poorer than they 
came, or if they resisted to be expelled by the very powers 
who had invited them. The Elector of Saxony at last 
spoke of a pecuniary indemnification, and mentioned the 
small sum of two million five hundred thousand florins ; 
but the Swedes had already expended considerably more, 
and this disgraceful equivalent in money was both con- 
trary to their true interests and injurious to their pride. 
" The Electors of Bavai-ia and Saxony," replied Oxen- 
stiern, "have been paid for their services, which, as vas- 
sals, they were bound to render the Emperor, with the 
possession of important provinces; and shall we who have 
sacrificed our king for Germany be dismissed with the 
miserable sum of two million five hundred thousand 
florins?" The disappointment of their expectations was 
the more severe because the Swedes had calculated upon 
being recompensed with the Duchy of Pomerania, the 
present j^ossessor of which was old and without heirs. 
But the succession of this territory was confirmed by the 
treaty of Prague to the Elector of Brandenburg; and all 
the neighboring powers declared against allowing the 
Swedes to obtain a footing within the empire. 

Never in the whole course of the war had the prospects 



332 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

of the Swedes looked more gloomy than in the year 1635, 
immediately after the conclusion of the treaty of Prague. 
Many of their allies, particularly among the free cities, 
abandoned them to benefit by the peace; others were 
compelled to accede to it by the victorious arms of the 
Emperor. Augsbu.rg, subdued by famine, surrendered 
under the severest conditions ; Wurtzburg and Coburg 
were lost to the Austrians. The League of Heilbronn 
was formally dissolved. Nearly the whole of Upper 
Germany, the chief seat of the Swedish power, was re- 
duced under the Emperor. Saxony on the strength of the 
treaty of Prague demanded the evacuation of Thuringia, 
Halberstadt, and Magdeburg. Philipsburg, the military 
depot of France, was surprised by the Austrians with all 
the stores it contained ; and this severe loss checked the 
activity of France. To complete the embarrassments of 
Sweden the truce with Poland was drawing to a close. 
To support a war at the same time with Poland and in 
Germany was far beyond the power of Sweden ; and all 
that remained was to choose between them. Pride and 
ambition declared in favor of continuing the German war 
at whatever sacrifice on the side of Poland. An army 
however was necessai-y to command the respect of Poland 
and to give weight to Sweden in any negotiations for a 
truce or a peace. 

The mind of Oxenstiern, firm and inexhaustible in expe- 
dients, set itself manfully to meet these calamities which 
all combined to overwhelm Sweden ; and his shrewd un- 
derstanding taught him how to turn even misfortunes to 
his advantage. The defection of so many German cities 
of the empire deprived him, it is true, of a great part of 
his former allies, but at the same time it freed him from 
the necessity of paying any regard to their interests. The 
more the number of his enemies increased the more prov- 
inces and magazines were opened to his troops. The 
gross ingratitude of the states and the haughty contempt 
with which the Emperor behaved (who did not even 
condescend to treat directly with him about a peace), 
excited in him the courage of despair and a noble deter- 
mination to maintain the struggle to the last. The con- 
tinuance of war, however unfortunate it might prove, could 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 333 

not render the situation of Sweden worse than it now 
was ; and if Germany was to be evacuated it was at least 
better and nobler to do so sword in hand, and to yield to 
force rather than to fear. 

In the extremity in which the Swedes were now placed 
by the desertion of their allies they addressed themselves 
to France, who met them with the greatest encouragement. 
The interest of the two crowns were closely united, and 
France would have injured herself by allowing the Swedish 
power in Germany to decline. The helpless situation of 
the Swedes was rather an additional motive with France 
to cement more closely their alliance, and to take a more 
active part in the German war. Since the alliance with 
Sweden at Beerwald, in 1632, France had maintained the 
Avar against the Emperor by the arms of Gustavus Adol- 
phus, without any open or formal breach, by furnishing 
subsidies and increasing the number of his enemies. But 
alarmed at the unexpected rapidity and success of the 
Swedish arms, France, in anxiety to restore the balance 
of power which was disturbed by the preponderance of 
the Swedes, seemed for a time to have lost sight of her 
original designs. She endeavored to protect the Roman 
Catholic princes of the empire against the Swedish con- 
queror by the treaties of neutrality, and when this plan 
failed she even meditated herself to declare war against 
him. But no sooner had the death of Gustavus Adolphus, 
and the desperate situation of the Swedish affairs, dis- 
pelled this apprehension, than she returned with fresh zeal 
to her first design, and readily afforded in this misfortune 
the aid which in the hour of success she had refused. 
Freed from the checks which the ambition and vigilance 
of Gustavus Adolphus placed upon her plans of aggrand- 
izement, France availed herself of the favorable oppor- 
tunity afforded by the defeat of Nordlingen to obtain the 
entire direction of the war, and to prescribe laws to those 
who sued for her powerful protection. The moment 
seemed to smile upon her boldest plans, and those which 
had formerly seemed chimerical now appeared to be jus- 
tified by circumstances. She now turned her whole at- 
tention to the war in Germany ; and as soon as she had 
secured her own private ends by a treaty with the Gej,- 



334 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

mans she suddenly entered the political arena as an active 
and a commanding power. While the other belligerent 
states had been exhausting themselves in a tedious con- 
test, France had been reserving her strength and main- 
tained the contest by money alone ; but now, when the 
state of things called for more active measures, she seized 
the sword and astonished Europe by the boldness and 
magnitude of her undertakings. At the same moment 
she fitted out two fleets and sent six different armies into 
the field, while she subsidized a foreign crown and several 
of the German princes. Animated by this powerful co- 
operation, the Swedes and Germans awoke from the con- 
sternation, and hojDcd, sword in hand, to obtain a more 
honorable peace than that of Prague. Abandoned by 
their confederates, who had been reconciled to the Em- 
peror, they formed a still closer alliance w^ith France, 
which increased her support with their growing necessities, 
at the same time taking a more active although secret 
share in the German wai', until at last she threw off the 
mask altogether, and in her own name made an unequiv- 
ocal declaration of war against the Emperor. 

To leave Sweden at fall liberty to act against Austria, 
France commenced her operations by liberating it from 
all fear of a Polish war. By means of the Count d'Avaux, 
its minister, an agreement was concluded between the two 
powers at Stummsdorf in Prussia, by which the truce was 
prolonged for twenty-six years, though not without a 
great sacrifice on the part of the Swedes, who ceded by 
a single stroke of the pen almost the whole of Polish 
Prussia, the dear-bought conquest of Gustavus Adolphus. 
The treaty of Beerwald was, with certain modifications, 
which circumstances rendered necessary, renewed at dif- 
ferent times at Compiegne, and afterwards atWismarand 
Hamburg. France had already come to a rupture M'ith 
Spain in May, 1635, and the vigorous attack which it 
made upon that power deprived the Emperor of his most 
valuable auxiliaries from the Netherlands. By supporting 
the Landgrave William of Cassel and Duke Bernard of 
Weimar the Swedes were enabled to act with more vigor 
upon the Elbe and the Danube, and a diversion upon the 
Rhine compelled the Emperor to divide his force. 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 335 

At length the Elector, having formed a junction with 
the Imperial General Hatzfeld, advanced against Magde- 
burg, which Banner in vain hastened to relieve. The 
united army of the Imperialists and the Saxons now 
spread itself over Brandenburg, wrested several places 
from the Swedes, and almost drove them to the Baltic. 
But, contrary to all exj^ectation. Banner, who had been 
given up as lost, attacked the allies on the 24th of Sep- 
tember, 1636, at Wittstoclv, where a bloody battle took 
2>lace. The onset was terrific, and the whole force of the 
enemy was directed against the right wing of the Swedes, 
which was led by Banner in person. The contest was 
long maintained with equal animosity and obstinacy on 
both sides. There was not a squadron among the Swedes 
which did not return ten times to the charge, to be as 
often repulsed, Avhen at last Banner was obliged to retire 
before the superior numbers of the enemy. His left wing 
sustained the combat until night, and the second line of 
the Swedes, which had not as yet been engaged, was j^re- 
pared to renew it the next morning. But the Elector 
did not wait for a second attack. His army was ex- 
hausted by the efforts of the preceding day ; and as the 
drivers had fled with the horses his artillery was un- 
serviceable. He accordingly retreated in the night with 
Count Hatzfeld and relinquished the ground to the 
Swedes. About five thousand of the allies fell upon the 
field, exclusive of those who were killed in the pursuit, 
or who fell into the hands of the exasperated peasantry. 
One hundred and fifty standards and colors, twenty- 
three pieces of cannon, the Avhole baggage and silver 
plate of the Elector were captured, and more than two 
thousand men taken prisoners. This brilliant victory, 
achieved over an enemy far superior in numbers, and in 
a very advantageous position, restored the Swedes at once 
to their former reputation ; their enemies were discour- 
aged and their friends inspired with new hoj)es. Banner 
instantly followed up this decisive success, and, hastily 
crossing the Elbe, drove the Imperialists before him 
through Thuringia and Hesse into Westphalia. He then 
returned and took up his winter quarters in Saxony. 
Rut, without the material aid furnished by the diver- 



336 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

sion upon the Rhine, and the activity there of Duke 
Bernard and the French, these important successes would 
have been unattainable. Duke Bernard, after the defeat 
of Nordlingen, reorganized his broken army at Wetterau, 
but, abandoned by the confederates of the League of 
Heilbronn, which had been dissolved by the peace of 
Prague, and receiving but little support from the Swedes, 
he found himself unable to maintain an army or to per- 
form any enterprise of importance. The defeat at Nord- 
lingen had terminated all his hopes on the Duchy of 
Franconia, while the weakness of the Swedes destroyed 
the chance of retrieving his fortunes through their assist- 
ance. Tired, too, of the constraint imposed upon him by 
the imperious chancellor, he turned his attention to 
France, who could easily supply him with money, the 
only aid which he required ; and France readily acceded 
to his proposals. Richelieu desired nothing so much as 
to diminish the influence of the Swedes in the German 
war, and to obtain the direction of it for himself. To 
secure this end nothing appeared more effectual than to 
detach from the Swedes their bravest general, to win him 
to the interests of France, and to secure for the execu- 
tion of its projects the services of his arm. From a prince 
like Bernard, who could not maintain himself without 
foreign support, France had nothing to fear, since no 
success, however brilliant, could render him independent 
of that crown. Bernard himself came into France, and 
in October, 1635, concluded a treaty at St. Germaine en 
Laye, not as a Swedish general, but in his own name, by 
which it was stipulated that he should receive for himself a 
yearly pension of one million five hundred thousand livres, 
and four millions for the support of his army, which he was 
to command under orders of the French king. To in- 
flame his zeal, and to accelerate the conquest of Alsace, 
France did not hesitate, by a secret ai'ticle, to promise 
him that province for his services; a promise which 
Richelieu had little intention of performing, and which 
the duke also estimated at its real worth. But Bernard 
confided in his good fortune and in his arms, and met 
artifice with dissimulation. If he could once succeed in 
wresting Alsace from the enemy he did not despair of 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAE. 337 

being able, in case of need, to maintain it also against a 
friend. He now raised an army at the expense of France, 
which he commanded nominally under the orders of that 
power, but in reality without any limitation whatever, 
and without having wholly abandoned his engagement? 
with Sweden. He began his operations upon the Rhint 
where another French army, under Cardinal Lavalette, 
had already, in 1635, commenced hostilities against the 
Emperor. 

Against this force the main body of the Imperialists, 
after the great victory of Nordlingen and the reduction 
of Swabia and Franconia, had advanced under the com- 
mand of Gallas, had driven them as far as Metz, cleared 
the Khine, and took from the Swedes the towns of Mentz 
and Frankenthal, of which they were in possession. _ But 
frustrated by the vigorous resistance of the French in his 
main object, of taking up his winter quarters in France, 
he led back his exhausted troops into Alsace and Swabia. 
At the opening of the next campaign he passed the 
Rhine at Breysach and prepared to carry the war into 
the interior of France. He actually entered Burgundy, 
while the Spaniards from the Netherlands made progress 
in Picardy ; and John De Werth, a formidable general 
of the League and a celebrated partisan, pushed his 
march into Champagne and spread consternation even to 
the gates of Paris. But an insignificant fortress in 
Franche Comte completely checked the Imperialists, 
and they were obliged a second time to abandon their 
enterprise. 

The activity of Duke Bernard had hitherto been im- 
peded by his dependence on a French general more 
suited to the priestly robe than to the baton of command ; 
and although in conjunction with him he conquered 
Alsace Saverne he found himself unable in the years 
1636 and 1637 to maintain his position upon the Rhine. 
The ill-success of the French arms in the Netherlands 
had checked the activity of operations in Alsace and 
Breisgau, but in 1638 the war in that quarter took a more 
brilliant turn. Relieved from his former restraint, and 
with unlimited command of his troops, Duke Bernard in 
the beginning of February left his winter quarters m the 



338 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Bishopric of Basle and unexpectedly appeared upon the 
Rhine, where at this rude season of the year an attack 
was little anticipated. The forest towns of Laufenburg, 
Waldshut, and Seckingen were surprised and Rhinefeldt 
besieged. The Duke of Savelli, the imperial general 
who commanded in that quarter, hastened by forced 
marches to the relief of this important place, succeeded 
in raising the siege, and compelled the Duke of Weimar, 
with great loss, to retire. But, contrary to all human 
expectation, he appeared on the third day after (21st Feb- 
ruary, 1638) before the Imperialists in order of battle, 
and defeated them in a bloody engagement, in which the 
four imperial generals, Savelli, John De Werth, Enke- 
ford, and Sperreuter, with two thousand men, were taken 
prisoners. Two of these, De Werth and Enkeford, were 
afterwards sent by Richelieu's orders into France in order 
to flatter the vanity of the French by the sight of such 
distinguished prisoners, and by the, pomp of military 
trophies to withdraw the attention of the populace from 
the public distress. The captured standards and colors 
were, with the same view, carried in solemn procession 
to the church of Notre Dame, thrice exhibited before the 
altar, and committed to sacred custody. 

The war was now prosecuted with increasing activity. 
By the treaty of Prague the Emperor had lessened the 
number of his adversaries within the Empire ; though at 
the same time the zeal and activity of his foreign enemies 
had been augmented by it. In Germany his influence 
was almost unlimited, for, with the exception of a few 
states, he had rendered himself absolute master of the 
German body and its resources, and was again enabled to 
act in the character of emperor and sovereign. The first 
fruit of his power was the elevation of his son, Ferdinand 
III., to the dignity of King of the Romans, to which he 
was elected by a decided majority of votes notwithstand- 
ing the opposition of Treves and of the heirs of the 
Elector Palatine. Bat, on tlie other hand, he had exas- 
perated the Swedes to desperation, had armed the power 
of France against him, and drawn its troops into the 
heart of the kingdom. France and Sweden, with their 
German allies, formed from tliis moment one firm and 



THE THIRTY YEARS ' WAR. 339 

compactly-united power ; the Emperor, with the German 
states which adhered to him, were equally firm and united. 
The Swedes, who no longer fought for Germany but for 
their own lives, showed no more indulgence; relieved 
from the necessity of consulting their German allies, or 
accounting to them for the plans which they adopted, 
they acted with more precipitation, rapidity, and boldness. 
Battles, though less decisive, became more obstinate and 
bloody ; greater achievements, both in bravery and mili- 
tary skill, were performed ; but they were but insulated 
efforts; and being neither dictated by any consistent 
plan nor improved by any commanding spirit, had com- 
paratively little influence upon the course of the war. 

Saxony had bound herself by the treaty of Prague to 
expel the Swedes from Germany. From this moment 
the banners of the Saxons and Imperialists were united ; 
the former confederates were converted into implacable 
enemies. The Archbishopric of Magdeburg, which by the 
treaty was ceded to the Prince of Saxony, was still held 
by the Swedes, and every attempt to acquire it by nego- 
tiations had proved ineffectual. Hostilities commenced 
by the Elector of Saxony recalling all his subjects from 
the army of Banner, which was encamped upon the Elbe. 
The officers, long irritated by the accumulation of their 
arrears, obeyed the summons and evacuated one quarter 
after another. As the Saxons at the same time made a 
movement towards Mecklenburg to take Domitz, and to 
drive the Swedes from Pomerania and the Baltic, Banner 
suddenly marched thither, relieved Domitz and totally 
defeated the Saxon General Baudissin, with seven thou- 
sand men, of whom one thousand were slain, and about 
tlie same number taken prisoners. Reinforced by the 
troops and artillery which had hitherto been employed 
in Polish Prussia, but which the treaty of Stummsdorf 
rendered unnecessary, this brave and impetuous general 
made the following year (1636) a sudden inroad into the 
Electorate of Saxony, where he gratified his inveterate 
hatred of the Saxons by the most destructive ravages. 
Irritated by the memory of old grievances which, during 
their common campaigns, he and'the Swedes had suffered 
irom the haughtiness of the Saxons, and now exasperated 



340 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

to llie utmost by the late defection of the Elector, they 
wreaked upon the unfortunate inhabitants all their ran- 
cor. Against Austi'ia and Bavaria the Swedish soldier 
had fought from a sense, as it were, of duty ; but against 
the Saxons they contended with all the energy of private 
animosity and personal revenge, detesting them as de- 
serters and traitors ; for the hatred of former friends is 
of all the most fierce and irreconcilable. The powerful 
diversion made by the Duke of Weimar and the Land- 
grave of Hesse upon the Rhine and in Westphalia pre- 
vented the Emperor from affording the necessary assist- 
ance to Saxony, and left the whole Electorate exposed to 
the destructive ravages of Banner's army. 

The taking of Rhinefeldt, Roteln, and Fribourg was 
the immediate consequence of the duke's victory. His 
army now increased by considerable recruits, and his pro- 
jects exjDanded in proportion as fortune favored him. 
The fortress of Breysach upon the Rhine was looked 
upon as holding the command of that river and as the 
key of Alsace. No place in this quarter was of more 
importance to the Emperor, and upon none had more 
care been bestowed. To protect Breysach was the prin- 
cipal destination of the Italian army under the Duke of 
Feria ; the strength of its Avorks and its natural defences 
bade defiance to assault, while the imperial generals who 
commanded in that quarter had orders to retain it at any 
cost. But the duke, trusting to his good fortune, re- 
solved to attempt the siege. Its strength rendered it 
impregnable ; it could, therefore, only be starved into a 
surrender; and this w^as facilitated by the carelessness of 
the commandant, who, expecting no attack, had been 
selling off his stores. As under these circumstances the 
town could not long hold out it must be immediately 
relieved or victualled. Accordingly the imperial General 
Goetz rapidly advanced at the head of twelve thousand 
men, accompanied by three thousand wagons loaded with 
provisions, which he intended to throw into the place. 
But he was attacked with such vigor by Duke Bernard 
at Witteweyer that he lost bis whole force, except three 
thousand men, together Avith the entire transport. A 
similar fate at Ochsenfeld, near Thann, overtook the 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 341 

Duke of Lorraine, who, with five or six thousand 
men, advanced to relieve the fortress. After a third 
attempt of General Goetz for the relief of Breysach had 
proved ineffectual the fortress, reduced to the greatest 
extremity by famine, surrendered, after a blockade of 
four months, on the 17th December, 1638, to its equally 
persevering and humane conqueror. 

The capture of Breysach opened a boundless field to 
the ambition of the Duke of Weimar, and the romance of 
his hopes was fast approaching to reality. Far from 
intending to surrender his conquests in France he des- 
tined Breysach for himself, and revealed this intention by 
exacting allegiance from the vanquished in his own name, 
and not in that of any other power. Intoxicated by his 
past success, and excited by the boldest hopes, he believed 
that he should be able to maintain his conquests even 
against France herself. At a time when everything 
depended upon bravery, when even personal strength 
was of importance, when troops and generals were of 
more importance than territories, it was natural for a 
hei'o like Bernard to place confidence in his own powers, 
and, at the head of an excellent ai-my, who under his 
command had proved invincible, to believe himself capa- 
ble of accomplishing the boldest and largest designs. In 
order to secure himself one friend among the crowd of 
enemies whom he was about to provoke, he turned his 
eyes upon the Landgravine Amelia of Hesse, the widow 
of the lately desceased Landgrave William, a princess 
whose talents were equal to her courage, and who, along 
with her hand, would bestow valuable conquests, an 
extensive principality, and a well-disciplined army. By 
the union of the conquests of Hesse with his own upon 
the Rhine, and the junction of their forces, a power of 
some importance, and perhaps a third party, might be 
formed in Germany, which might decide the fate of the 
war. But a premature death put a period to these extens- 
ive schemes. 

" Courage, Father Joseph, Breysach is ours ! " whis- 
pered Richelieu in the ear of the Capuchin who had long 
held himself in readiness to be despatched into that 
quarter, so delighted was he with this joyful intelligence. 



342 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Already in imagination he held Alsace, Breisgau, and all 
the frontiers in Austria in that quarter without regard to 
his promise to Duke Bernard. But the firm determina- 
tion which the latter had unequivocally shown to keep 
Breysach for himself greatly embarrassed the cardinal, 
and no efforts were spared to retain the victorious Ber- 
nard in the interests of France. He was invited to court 
to witness the honors by which his triumph was to be 
commemorated; but he perceived and shunned the se- 
ductive snare. The cardinal even went so far as to offer 
him the hand of his niece in marriage ; but the proud 
German prince declined the offer, and refused to sully 
the blood of Saxony by a misalliance. He was now 
considered as a dangerous enemy and treated as such. 
His subsidies were withdrawn ; and the governor of Brey- 
sach and his principal officers were bribed, at least upon 
the event of the duke's death, to take possession of his 
conquests and to secure his troops. These intrigues 
were no secret to the duke, and the precautions he 
took in the conquered places clearly bespoke the distrust 
of France, But this misunderstanding with the French 
court had the most prejudicial influence upon his future 
operations. The prejjarations he was obliged to make in 
order to secure his conquests against an attack on the 
side of France compelled him to divide his military 
strength, while the stoppage of his subsidies delayed his 
appearance in the field. It had been his intention to 
cross the Rhine, to support the Swedes, and to act against 
the Emperor and Bavaria on the banks of the Danube. 
He had already communicated his plan of operations to 
Banner, who was about to carry the war into the Austrian 
territories, and had promised to relieve him so, when a 
sudden death cut short his heroic career, in the thirty 
sixth year of his age, at Neuburg upon the Rhine (in 
July, 1639). 

He died of a pestilential disorder, which, in the course 
of two days, had carried off nearly four hundred men in 
his camp. The black spots wliich appeared upon his 
body, his own dying expressions, and the advantages 
which France was likely to reap from his sudden decease, 
gave rise to a suspicion that he had been removed by 



tSE THIRTY YEAES' WAK. 343 

poison — a suspicion sufficiently refuted by the symptoms 
of his disorder. In him the allies lost their greatest 
general after Gustavus Adolj^hus, France a formidable 
competitor for Alsace, and the Emperor his most dan- 
gerous enemy. Trained to the duties of a soldier and a 
general in the school of Gustavus Adolphus, he success- 
fully imitated his eminent model, and wanted only a 
longer life to equal if not to surpass it. With the 
bravery of the soldier he united the calm and cool pene- 
tration of the general, the persevering fortitude of the 
man with the daring resolution of youth ; with the wild 
ardor of the warrior, the sober dignity of the prince, the 
moderation of the sage, and the conscientious of the 
man of honor. Discouraged by no misfortune, he quickly 
rose again in full vigor from the severest defeats ; no 
obstacles could check his enterprise, no disappointments 
conquer his indomitable perseverance. His genius, per- 
haps, soared after unattainable objects; but the prudence 
of such men is to be measured by a different standard 
from that of ordinary people. Capable of accomplishing 
more, he might venture to form more daring plans. 
Bernard affords, in modern history, a spendid example 
of those days of chivalry, when personal greatness had its 
full weight and influence, when individual bravery could 
conquer provinces, and the heroic exploits of a German 
knight raised him even to the imperial throne. 

The best part of the duke's possessions were his army, 
which, together with Alsace, he bequeathed to his brother 
William. But to this army, both France and Sweden 
thought that they had well-grounded claims ; the latter, 
because it had been raised in the name of that crown and 
had done homage to it ; the former because it had been 
supported by its subsidies. The Electoral Prince of the 
Palatinate also negotiated for its services, and attempted, 
first by his agents, and latterly in his own person, to win 
it over to his interests, with the view of employing it in 
the reconquest of his territories. Even the Emperor en- 
deavored to secure it, a circumstance the less surprising, 
when we reflect that at this time the justice of the cause 
was comparatively unimportant, and the extent of the 
recompense the main object to which the soldier looked j 



344 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

and when bravery, like every other commodity, waf> 
disposed of to the highest bidder. But France, richei 
and more determined, outbade all comjaetitors ; it bought 
over General Erlach, the commander of Breysach, and the 
other officers, who soon placed that fortress, with the 
whole army, in their hands. 

The young Palatine, Prince Charles Louis, who had 
already made an unsuccessful campaign against the 
Emperor, saw his hopes again deceived. Although in- 
tending to do France so ill a service as to compete with 
her for Bernard's army he had the imprudence to travel 
through that kingdom. The cardinal, who dreaded the 
justice of the Palatine's cause, was glad to seize any 
opportunity to frustrate his views. He accordingly caused 
him to be seized at Moulin, in violation of the law of 
nations, and did not set him at liberty until he learned 
that the army of the Duke of Weimar had been secured. 
France was now in possession of a numerous and well- 
disciplined army in Germany, and from this moment 
began to make open war upon the Emjseror. 

But it was no longer against Ferdinand II. that its hos- 
tilities were to be conducted, for tliat prince had died in 
February, 1637, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. The war 
which his ambition had kindled, however, survived him. 
During a reign of eighteen years he had never once laid 
aside the sword, nor tasted the blessings of peace as long 
as his hand swayed the imperial sceptre. Endowed with 
the qualities of a good sovereign, adorned with many of 
those virtues which insure the happiness of a people, and 
by nature gentle and humane, we see him from erroneous 
ideas of the monarch's duty become at once the instru- 
ment and the victim of the evil passions of others, his 
benevolent intentions frustrated, and the friend of justice 
converted into the oppressor of mankind, the enemy of 
peace, and the scourge of his people. Amiable in domestic 
life, and respectable as a sovereign, but in his policy ill- 
advised, while he gained the love of his Roman Catholic 
subjects, he incurred the execration of the Protestants. 
History exhibits many and greater despots than Ferdi- 
nand II., yet he alone has had the unfortunate celebrity 
of kindling a thirty years' warj but to produce its 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 345 

lamentable consequences his ambition must have been 
seconded by a kindred spirit of the age, a congenial state 
of previous circumstances, and existing seeds of discord. 
At a less turbulent period the spark would have found no 
fuel, and the peacefulness of the age would have choked 
the voice of individual ainbition ; but now the flash fell 
upon a pile of accumulated combustibles, and Europe was 
in flames. 

His son, Ferdinand III., who a few months before his 
father's death had been raised to the dio-nity of King of 
the Romans, inherited his throne, his principles, and the 
war which he had caused. But Ferdinand III. had been 
a closer witness of the sufferings of the people and the 
devastation of the country, and felt more keenly and 
ardently the necessity of peace. Less influenced by the 
Jesuits and the Spaniards, and more moderate towards 
the religious views of others, he was more likely than his 
father to listen to the voice of reason. He did so, and 
ultimately restored to Europe the blessing of peace, but 
not till after a contest of eleven years waged with sword 
and pen ; not till after he had experienced the impossi- 
bility of resistance, and necessity had laid upon him its 
stern laws. 

Fortune favored him at the commencement of his reign, 
and his arms were victorious against the Swedes. The 
latter, under the command of the victorious Banner, had 
after their success at Wittstock taken up their winter 
quarters in Saxony, and the campaign of 1637 opened 
with the siege of Leipzig. The vigorous resistance of 
the garrison and the approach of the Electoral and 
Imperial armies saved the town, and Banner, to prevent 
liis communication with the Elbe being cut off, was com- 
pelled to retreat into Torgau. But the superior number 
of the Imperialists drove him even from that quarter ; 
and surrounded by the enemy, hemmed in by rivers, and 
suffering from famine, he had no course open to hini but 
to attempt a highly dangerous retreat into Pomerania, of 
which the boldness and successful issue border upon 
romance. The whole army crossed the Oder at a ford 
near Furstenberg ; and, the soldiers, wading up to the 
neck in water, dragged the artillery across, when the 



346 THE THIRTr YEARS' WAR. 

horses refused to draw. Banner Lad expected to be joined 
by General Wr angel on the farther side of the Oder in 
Pomerania; and, in conjunction with him, to be able to 
make head against the enemy. But Wrangel did not 
appear, and in his stead he found an imperial army posted 
at Landsberg with a view to cut off the retreat of the 
Swedes. Banner now saw that he had fallen into a dan- 
gerous snare from which escape apj^eared impossible. In 
his rear lay an exhausted country, the Imperialists, and 
the Oder on his left ; the Oder, too, guarded by the Impe- 
rial General Bucheim, offered no retreat ; in front Lands- 
berg, Custrin, the Warta, and a hostile army ; and on the 
right Poland, in which, notwithstanding the truce, little 
confidence could be placed. In these circumstances his 
position seemed hopeless, and the Imperialists were 
already triumphing in the certainty of his fall. Banner, 
with just indignation, accused the French as the authors of 
this misfortune. Tliey had neglected to make, according 
to their promise, a diversion ujDon the Rhine, and by their 
inaction allowed the Emperor to combine his whole force 
upon the Swedes. " When the day comes," cried the in- 
censed general to the French commissioner, who followed 
the camp, " that the Swedes and Germans join their arms 
against France we shall cross the Phine with less cere- 
mony." But reproaches were now useless ; what the 
emergency demanded was energy and resolution. In the 
hope of drawing the enemy by stratagem from the 
Oder, Banner pretended to march towards Poland, and 
despatched the greater part of his baggage in this direc- 
tion, with his own wife and those of the other officei'S. 
The Imperialists immediately broke up their camp and 
hurried towards the Polish frontier to block up the route ; 
Bucheim left his station, and the Oder was stripped of its 
defenders. On a sudden, and imder cloud of night, 
Banner turned towards that river, and crossed it about a 
mile above Custrin, with his troops, baggage, and artil- 
lery, without bridges or vessels, as he had done before at 
Furstenberg. He reached Pomerania without loss, and 
prepared to share with Wrangel the defence of that 
province. 

But the Imperialists, under the command of Gallas, en- 



THE THIKTY YEAES' WAK. 347 

tered that duchy at Ribses, and overran it by their 
superior strength. Usedom and Wolgast were taken by 
storm, Demmin capitulated, and the Swedes were driven 
far into Lower Pomerania. It was, too, more important 
for them at this moment than ever to maintain a footing 
in that country, for Bogislaus XIV. had died that year, 
and Sweden must prepare to establish its title to Pom- 
erania. To prevent the Elector of Brandenburg ivom 
making good the title to that duchy, which the treaty of 
Prague had given him, Sweden exerted her utmost ener- 
gies, and supported its generals to the extent of her 
ability, both with troops and money. In other quarters 
of the kingdom the affairs of the Swedes began to wear a 
more favorable aspect, and to recover from the humilia- 
tion into which they had been thrown by the inaction of 
France and the desertion of their allies. For, after 
their hasty retreat into Pomerania, they had lost one 
place after another in Upper Saxony ; the Princes of 
Mecklenburg, closely pressed by the troops of the Em- 
peror, began to lean to the side of Austria, and even 
George, Duke of Lunenburg, declared against them.. 
Ehrenbreitstein was starved into a surrender by the 
Bavarian General de Werth, and the Austrians possessed 
themselves of all the works which had been thrown up 
on the Rhine. France had been the sufferer in the con- 
test with Spain; and the event had by no means justified 
the pompous exi^ectations which had accompanied the 
opening of the campaign. Every place which the Swedes 
had held in the interior of Germany was lost ; and only 
the principal towns in Pomerania still remained in their 
hands. Bat a single campaign raised them from tliis 
state of humiliation ; and the vigorous diversion, which 
the victorious Bernard had effected upon the Rhine, gave 
quite a new turn to affairs. 

The misunderstandings between France and Sweden 
were now at last adjusted, and the old treaty between 
these powers confirmed at Hamburg, with fresh advan- 
tages for Sweden. In Hesse the politic Landgravine 
Amelia had, with the approbation of the Estates, as- 
sumed the government after the death of her husband, 
arid resolutely maintained her rights against the Emperor 



348 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

and the House of Darmstadt. Already zealously attached 
to the Swedish Protestant party on religious grounds, 
she only awaited a favorable opportunity openly to declare 
herself. By artful delays and by prolonging the negotia- 
tions with the Emperor she had succeeded in keeping 
him inactive, till she had concluded a secret compact with 
France, and the victories of Duke Bernard had given a 
favorable turn to the affairs of the Protestants. She now 
at once threw off the mask, and renewed her former alli- 
ance with the Swedish crown. The Electoral Prince of 
the Palatinate was also stimulated by the success of 
Bernard to try his fortune against the common enemy. 
Raising troops in Holland with English money, he 
formed a magazine at Meppen and joined the Swedes in 
Westphalia. His magazine w^as, however, quickly lost ; 
his army defeated near Flotha by Count Hatzfeld ; but 
his attempt served to occupy for some time the attention 
of the enemy, and thereby facilitated the operations of 
the Swedes in other quarters. Other friends began to 
appear as fortune declared in their favor ; and the cir- 
cumstance that the states of Lower Saxony embraced a 
neutrality was of itself no inconsiderable advantage. 

Under these advantages, and reinforced by fourteen 
thousand fresh troops from Sweden and Livonia, Banner 
opened with the most favorable prospects the campaign 
of 1638. The Imperialists who were in possession of 
Upper Pomerania and Mecklenburg either abandoned 
their positions or deserted in crowds to the Swedes to 
avoid the horrors of famine, the most formidable enemy 
in this exhausted country. The whole country betwixt 
the Elbe and the Oder was so desolated by the past 
marchings and quarterings of the troops that, in order to 
support his army on its march into Saxony and Bohemia, 
Banner was obliged to take a circuitous route from 
Lower Pomerania into Lower Saxony, and then into the 
Electorate of Saxony through the territory of Halber- 
stadt. The impatience of the Lower Saxon states to 
get rid of such troublesome guests procured him so plen- 
tiful a supply of provisions that he was provided with 
bread in Magdeburg itself, where famine had even over- 
come the natural antipathy of men to human flesh. Hig 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 349 

approach spread consternation among the Saxons; but 
his views were directed not against this exhausted coun- 
try, but against the hereditary dominions of the Em- 
peror. The_ victories of Bernard encouraged him, while 
the prosperity of the Austrian provinces excited his 
hopes of booty. After defeating the Imperial General 
balls at Elsterberg, totally routing the Saxon army at 
Chemnitz, and taking Pirna, he penetrated with irresisti- 
ble impetuosity into Bohemia, crossed the Elbe, threat- 
ened Prague, took Brandeis and Leutmeritz, defeated 
General Hofkirchen with ten regiments, and spread ter- 
ror and devastation through that defenceless kingdom. 
Booty was his sole object, and whatever he could not 
carry off he destroyed. In order to remove more of the 
corn the ears were cut from the stalks, and the latter 
burnt. _ Above a thousand castles, hamlets, and villages 
were laid m ashes; sometimes more than a hundred were 
seen burning in one night. From Bohemia he crossed 
into Silesia, and it was his intention to carry his ravaRes 
even into Moravia and Austria. But to prevent this 
Count Hatzfeld was summoned from Westphalia, and 
Piccolomini from the Netherlands, to hasten ^ith all 
speed to this quarter. The Archduke Leopold, brother 
to the Emperor, assumed the command in order to repair 
the errors of his predecessor, Gallas, and to raise the 
army from the low ebb to which it had fallen. 

The result justified the change, and the campaign of 
1640 appeared to take a most unfortunate turn for the 
Swedes. They were successively driven out of all their 
posts in Bohemia, and, anxious only to secure their plun- 
der, they precipitately crossed the heights of Meissen. 
But being followed into Saxony by the pursuing enemy, 
and^ defeated at Plauen, they were obliged to take refuge 
in Thuringia. Made masters of the field in a single 
summer, they were as rapidly dispossessed, but only to 
acquire it a second time, and to hurry from one extreme 
to another. The army of Banner, weakened and on the 
brink of destruction in its camp* at Erfurt, suddenly 
recovered itself. The Duke of Lunenburg abandoned 
the treaty of Prague, and joined Banner with the very 
troops which the year before had fought against him. 



350 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Hesse Cassel sent reinforcements, and the Duke of 
Longueville came to his support with the army of th^" 
late Duke Bernard. Once more numerically superior to 
the Imperialists Banner offered them battle near Saat 
feld, but their leader, Piccolomini, prudently declined an 
engagement, having chosen too strong a position to be 
forced. When tlio Bavarians at lengtli separated from 
the Imperialists and marched towards Franconia Banner 
attempted an attack upon this divided corps, but the 
attempt was frustrated JDy tlie skill of the Bavarian Gen- 
eral Von Mercy and the near approach of the main body 
of the Imperialists. Both armies now moved into the 
exhausted territory of Hesse, where they formed in- 
trenched camps near each other, till at last famine and 
the severity of the winter compelled them both to retire. 
Piccolomini chose the fertile banks of the Weser for his 
winter quarters, but being outflanked by Banner he was 
obliged to give way to the Swedes and to impose on the 
Franconian sees the burden of maintaining his army. 

At this period a diet was held in Ratisbon, where the 
complaints of the states were to be heard, measures 
taken for securing the repose of the Empire, and the 
question of peace or war finally settled. The presence 
of the Emperor, the majority of the Roman Catholic 
voices in the Electoral College, the great number of bish- 
ops, and the withdrawal of several of the Protestant 
votes, gave the Emperor a complete command of the 
deliberations of the assembly, and rendered this diet 
anything but a fair representative of the opinions of the 
German EmjDire, The Protestants with reason consid- 
ered it as a mere combination of Austria and its crea- 
tures against their party, and it seemed to them a lauda- 
ble effort to interrupt its deliberations and to dissolve 
the Diet itself. 

Banner undertook this bold enterprise. His military 
reputation had suffered by his last retreat from Bohemia, 
and it stood in need of some great exploit to restore its 
former lustre. Without communicating his designs to 
any one, in the depth of the winter of 1641, as soon as 
the roads and rivers were frozen, he broke up from his 
quarters in Lunenburg. Accomi^anied by Marshal Gue- 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 351 

briant, who commanded the armies of France and Wei- 
mar, he took the route towards the Danube, through 
Thuringia and Vogtland, and appeared before Ratisbon 
ere the Diet could be ajjprised of his approach. The 
consternation of the assembly was indescribable, and in 
the first alarm the deputies prepared for flight. The 
Emperor alone declared that he would not leave the 
town, and encouraged the rest by his example. Unfor- 
tunately for the Swedes a thaw came on, which broke up 
the ice ujDon the Danube so that it was no longer passable 
on foot, while no boats could cross it on account of the 
quantities of ice which were swej^t down by the current. 
In order to perform something and to humble the pride 
of the EmjDcror, Banner discourteously fired five hundred 
cannon-shots into the town, which however did little 
mischief. Baffled in his designs, he resolved to penetrate 
farther into Bavaria and the defenceless province of 
Moravia, where a rich booty and comfortable quarters 
awaited his troops. Guebriant, however, began to fear 
that the purpose of the Swedes was to draw the army of 
Bernard away from the Rhine and to cut off its commu- 
nication with France till it should be either entirely won 
over or incapacitated from acting independently. He 
therefore separated from Banner to return to the Maine, 
and the latter was exposed to the whole force of the 
Imperialists, which had been secretly drawn together 
between Ratisbon and Ingoldstadt, and was on its march 
against him. It was now time to think of a rapid 
retreat, which having to be effected in the face of an 
army superior in cavalry, and betwixt woods and rivers 
through a country entirely hostile, appeared almost im- 
practicable. He hastily retired towards the Forest, 
intending to penetrate through Bohemia into Saxony, 
but he was obliged to sacrifice three regiments at Neu- 
burg. These with a truly Spartan courage defended 
themselves for four days behind an old wall, and gained 
time for Banner to escape. He retreated by Egra to 
Annaberg ; Piccolomini took a shorter route in pursuit 
by Schlakenwald, and Banner succeeded only by a single 
half hour in clearing the Pass of Prisnitz and saving his 
whole army from the Imperialists. At Zwickau he was 



352 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

again joined by Guebriant, and both generals directed 
their march towards Halberstadt after in vain attempting 
to defend the Saal and to prevent the passage of the 
Imperialists. 

Banner at length terminated his career at Halberstadt, 
in May, 1641, a victim to vexation and disappointment. 
He sustained with great renown though with varying 
success the reputation of the Swedish arms in Germany, 
and by a train of victories showed himself worthy of his 
great master in the art of war. He was fertile in expe- 
dients, which he planned with secrecy and executed with 
boldness, cautious in the midst of dangers, greater in 
adversity than in prosperity, and never more formidable 
than when upon the brink of destruction. But the vir- 
tues of the hero were united with all the failings and 
vices which a military life creates, or at least fosters. As 
imperious in private life as he was at the head of his 
army, rude as his profession, and proud as a conqueror, 
he oppressed, the German princes no less by his haughti- 
ness than their country by his contributions. He con- 
soled himself for the toils of war in voluptuousness and 
the pleasures of the table, in which he indulged to 
excess, and was thus brought to an early grave. But 
though as much addicted to pleasure as Alexander or 
Mahomet II., he hurried from the arms of luxury .into 
the hardest fatigues, and placed himself in all his vigor 
at the head of liis army at the very moment his soldiers 
were murmuring at his luxurious excesses. Nearly 
eighty thousand men fell in the numerous battles which 
he fought, and about six hundred hostile standards and 
colors, which he sent to Stockholm, were the trophies of 
his victories. The want of this great general was soon 
severely felt by the Swedes, who feared with justice that 
the loss would not readily be replaced. The spirit of 
rebellion and insubordination, which had been overawed 
by the imperious demeanor of this dreaded commander, 
awoke upon his death. The officers, with an alarming- 
unanimity, demanded payment of their arrears, and none 
of the four generals who shared the command possessed 
influence enough to satisfy these demands or to silence 
the malcontents. All discipline was at an endj in- 



THE THIRTY YEARS' AVAR. 353 

creasing want and the imperial citations were daily 
diminishing the number of the army; the troops of 
France and Weimar showed little zeal ; those of Lunen- 
burg forsook the Swedish colors; the Princes also of the 
House of Brunswick, after the death of Duke George, 
had formed a separate treaty with the Emperor, and at 
last even those of Hesse quitted them to seek better 
quarters in Westphalia. The enemy profited by these 
calamitous divisions, and although defeated with loss in 
two pitched battles, succeeded in making considerable 
progress in Lower Saxony. 

At length appeared the new Swedish generalissimo 
with fresh troops and money. This was Bernard Tor- 
stensohn, a pupil of Gustavus Adolphus, and his most 
successful imitator, who had been his page during the 
Polish war. Though a martyr to the gout and confined to 
a litter, he surpassed all his opponents in activity ; and his 
enterprises had wings while his body was held by the 
most frightful of fetters. Under him the scene of war 
was changed and new maxims adopted which necessity 
dictated and the issue justified. All the countries in 
which the contest had hitherto raged were exhausted, 
while the House of Austria, safe in its more distant ter- 
tories, felt not the miseries of the war under which the 
rest of Germany groaned. Torstensohn first furnished 
them with this bitter experience, glutted his Swedes on 
the fertile fields of Austria, and carried the torch of war 
to the very footsteps of the imperial throne. 

In Silesia the enemy had gained considerable advan- 
tage over the Swedish General Stalhantsch, and driven 
him as far as Neumark. Torstenohn, who had joined 
the main body of the Swedes in Lunenburg, summoned 
him to unite with his force, and in the year 1642 hastily 
marched into Silesia through Brandenburg, which, under 
its great Elector, had begun to maintain an armed neu- 
trality. Glogau was carried, sword in hand, without a 
breach or formal approaches, the Duke Francis Albert 
of Lauenburg defeated and killed at Schweidnitz, and 
Schweidnitz Itself with almost all the towns on that side 
of the Oder taken. He now penetrated with irresistible 
violence into the interior of Moravia, where no enemy of 



354 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Austria had hitherto aj^peared, took Olmutz and threw 
Vienna itself into consternation. 

But in the meantime Piccolomini and the Archduke 
Leopold had collected a superior force which speedily 
drove the Swedish conquerors from Moravia, and, after a 
fruitless attempt upon Brieg, from Silesia. Reinforced, 
by Wrangel, the Swedes again attempted to make head 
against the enemy, and relieved Grossglogau, but could 
neither bring the Imperialists to an engagement nor carry 
into effect their own views upon Bohemia. Overrunning 
Lusatia they took Zittau in presence of the enemy, and 
after a short stay in that country directed their march 
toward the Elbe, which they passed at Torgau. Torsten- 
sohn now threatened Leipzig with a siege, and hoped to 
raise a large supj^ly of provisions and contributions from 
that prosperous town, which for ten years had been 
un visited with the scourge of war. 

The Imperialists under Leopold and Piccolomini im- 
mediately hastened by Dresden to its relief, and Torsten- 
sohn to avoid being inclosed between this army and the 
town boldly advanced to meet them in ordei; of battle. 
By a strange coincidence the two armies met upon the 
very spot which eleven years before Gustavus Adolphus 
had rendered remarkable by a decisive victory; and the 
heroism of their predecessors now kindled in the Swedes 
a noble emulation on this consecrated ground. The 
Swedish Generals Stahlhantsch and Wellenberg led their 
divisions with such impetuosity upon the left wing of the 
Imperialists, before it was completely formed, that the 
whole cavalry that covered it were dispersed and ren- 
dered unserviceable. But the left of the Swedes was 
threatened with a similar fate when the victorious right 
advanced to its assistance, took the enemy in flank and 
rear and divided the Austrian line. The infantry on 
both sides stood firm as a wall, and when their ammuni- 
tion was exhausted maintained the combat with the butt 
ends of their muskets, till at last, the Imperialists, com- 
pletely surrounded, after a contest of three hours, were 
compelled to abandon the field. The generals on both 
sides had more than once to rally their flying troops; 
and the Archduke Leopold with his regiment was the 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 355 

first in the attack and last in fight. But this bloody 
victory cost the Swedes more than three thousand men 
and two of their best generals, Schlangen and Lilien- 
hoeck. More than five thousand of the Imperialists were 
left upon the field, and nearly as many taken prisoners. 
Their whole artillery, consisting of forty-six field-pieces, 
the silver plate and portfolio of the archduke, with the 
whole baggage of the army, fell into the hands of the 
victors. Torstensohn, too greatly disabled by his victory 
to pursue the enemy, moved upon Leipzig. The defeated 
army retreated into Bohemia, where its shattered regi- 
ments reassembled. The Archduke Leopold could not 
recover from the vexation caused by this defeat, and the 
regiment of cavalry which by its premature flight had 
occasioned the disaster experienced the effects of his 
indignation. At Raconitz, in Bohemia, in presence of 
the whole army, he publicly declared it infamous, de- 
prived it of its horses, arms, and ensigns, ordered its 
standards to be torn, condemned to death several of the 
officers, and decimated the privates. 

The surrender of Leipzig, three weeks after the battle, 
was its brilliant result. The city was obliged to clothe 
the Swedish troops anew, and to jjurchase an exemption 
from plunder by a contribution of three hundred thou- 
sand rix-dollars, to which all the foreign merchants who 
had warehouses in the city were to furnish their quota. In 
the middle of the winter Torstensohn advanced against 
Freyberg, and for several weeks defied the inclemency of 
the season, hoping by his perseverance to weary out the 
obstinacy of the besieged. But he found that he was 
merely sacrificing the lives of his soldiers; and at last 
the approach of the imperial general, Piccolomini, com- 
pelled him with his weakened army to retire. He con- 
sidered it, however, as equivalent to a victory to have 
disturbed the repose of the enemy in their winter quarters, 
who, by the severity of the weather, sustained a loss of three 
thousand horses. He now made a movement towards the 
Oder, as if with the view of reinforcing himself with the 
garrisons of Pomerania and Silesia; but with the rapidity 
of lightning he again appeared upon the Bohemian front- 
ier, penetrated through that kingdom and relieved 



356 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

Olmutz in Moravia, wliicli was hard pressed by the Ira- 
j)erialists. His camp at Dobitschau, two miles from 
Olmutz, commanded the whole of Moravia, on which he 
levied heavy contributions, and cai-ried his ravages almost 
to the gates of Vienna. In vain did the Emperor at- 
tempt to arm the Hungarian nobility in defence of this 
province ; they appealed to their privileges and refused 
to serve beyond the limits of their own country. Thus 
the time that should have been sjDcnt in active resistance 
was lost in fruitless negotiation, and the entire province 
was abandoned to the ravages of the Swedes. 

While Torstensohn by his marches and his victories 
astonished friend and foe the armies of the allies had not 
been inactive in other parts of the empire. The troops 
of Hesse, under Count Eberstein, and those of Weimar, 
under Mareschal de Guebriant, had fallen into the Elec- 
torate of Cologne, in order to take up their winter quar- 
ters there. To get rid of these troublesome guests the 
Elector called to his assistance the imperial General Hatz- 
feld and assembled his own troops under General Lara- 
boy. The latter was attacked by the allies in January, 
1642, and in a decisive action near Kempen defeated 
with a loss of about two thousand men killed and about 
twice as many prisoners. This important victory opened 
to them the whole Electorate and neighboring territories 
so that the allies were not only enabled to maintain their 
winter quarters there, but drew from the country large 
supplies of men and horses. 

Guebriant left the Hessians to defend their conquests 
on the Lower Rliine against Hatzfeld, and advanced 
towards Thuringia, as if to second the operations of 
Torstensohn in Saxony, But instead of joining the 
Swedes he soon hurried back to the Rhine and the Maine, 
from which he seemed to think he had removed farther 
than was expedient. But being anticipated in the Mar- 
gravate of Baden by the Bavarians under Mercy and 
John De Werth he was obliged to wander about for sev- 
eral weeks exposed without shelter to the inclemency of 
the winter and generally encamping uj^on the snow till 
he found a miserable refuge in Bavaria. He at last took 
the field, and in the next summer by keeping the Bavarian 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 357 

army employed in Swabia prevented it from relieving 
Thionville, which was besieged by Cond6. But the supe- 
riority of the enemy soon drove him back to Alsace, 
where he awaited a reinforcement. 

The death of Cardinal Richelieu took place in Novem- 
ber, 1642, and the subsequent change in the throne and 
in the ministry, occasioned by the death of Louis XIII., 
had for some time withdrawn the attention of France 
from the German war, and was the cause of the inaction 
of its troops in the field. But Mazarin, the inheritor not 
only of Richelieu's power, but also of his principles and 
his projects, followed out with renewed zeal the plans of 
his predecessor, though the French subject was destined 
to pay dearly enough for the political greatness of his 
country. The main strength of its armies, which Riche- 
lieu had employed against the Spaniards, was by Mazarin 
directed against the Emperor ; and the anxiety with 
which he carried on the war in Germany proved the 
sincerity of his oj^inion, that the German army was the 
right arm of his king and a wall of safety around France. 
Immediately upon the surrender of Thionville he sent a 
considerable reinforcement to Field-Marshal Guebriant in 
Alsace ; and to encourage the troops to bear the fatigues 
of the German war, the celebrated victor of Rocroi, the 
Duke of Enghien, afterwads Prince of Conde, was placed 
at their head. Guebriant now felt himself strong enough 
to appear again in Germany with repute. He hastened 
across the Rhine with the view of procuring better win- 
ter quarters in Swabia, and actually made himself master 
of Rothweil, where a Bavarian magazine fell into his 
hands. But the place was too dearly purchased for its 
worth, and was again lost even more speedily than it had 
been taken. Guebriant received a wound in the arm, 
which the surgeon's unskilfulness rendered mortal, and 
the extent of his loss was felt on the very day of his 
death. 

The French army, sensibly weakened by an expedition 
undertaken at so severe a season of the year, had after 
the taking of Rowtheil withdrawn into the neighborhood 
of Duttlingen, where it lay in complete security without 
expectation of a hostile attack. In the meantime the 



558 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

enemy collected a considerable force with a view to 
prevent the French from establishing themselves beyond 
the Rhine and so near to Bavaria, and to protect that 
quarter from their ravages. The Imjjerialists under 
Hatzfeld had formed a junction with the Bavarians 
under Mercy ; and the Duke of Lorraine, who, during 
the whole course of the war, was generally found every- 
where except in his own duchy, joined their united forces. 
It was resolved to force the quarters of the French in 
Duttlingen and the neighboring villages by surprise ; a 
favorite mode of proceeding in this war, and which being 
commonly accompanied by confusion occasioned more 
bloodshed than a regular battle. On the present occasion 
there was the more to justify it, as the French soldiers, 
unaccustomed to such enterprises, conceived themselves 
protected by the security of the winter against any sur- 
prise. John de Werth, a master in this species of war- 
fare, which he had often put in practice against Gustavus 
Horn, conducted the enterprise and succeeded contrary 
to all expectation. 

The attack was made on a side where it was least 
looked for, on account of the woods and narrow passes ; 
and a heavy snow-storm which fell upon the same day (the 
24th November, 1643), concealed the approach of the 
vanguard till it halted before Duttlingen. The whole of 
the artillery without the place, as well as the neighboring 
Castle of Honberg, were taken without resistance, Dutt- 
lingen itself was gradually surrounded by the enemy, and 
all connection with the other quarters in the adjacent 
villages silently and suddenly cut off. The French were 
vanquished without firing a cannon. The cavalry owed 
their escape to the swiftness of their horses and the few 
minutes in advance which they had gained upon their 
pursuers. The infantry were cut to pieces or voluntarily 
laid down their arras. About two thousand men were 
killed, and seven thousand, with twenty-five staff-officers 
and ninety captains, taken prisoners. This was perhaps 
the only battle in the whole course of the war which 
jiroduced nearly the same effect upon the party which 
gained and that which lost; — both these parties were 
Germans : the French disoraced themselves. The mem- 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. ^59 

ory of this unfortunate day, which was renewed one 
hundred years after at Rosbach, was indeed erased by 
the subsequent heroism of a Turenne and Conde ; but 
the Germans may be pardoned if they indemnified them- 
selves for the miseries which the policy of France had 
heaped upon them by these severe reflections upon her 
intrepidity. 

Meantime this defeat of the French was calculated to 
prove highly disastrous to Sweden, as the whole power of 
the Emperor might now act against them, while the num- 
ber of their enemies was increased by a formidable acces- 
sion. Torstensohn had, in September, 1643, suddenly left 
Moravia and moved into Silesia, The cause of this step 
was a secret, and the frequent changes which took 
place in the direction of his march contributed to increase 
this perplexity. From Silesia after numberless circuits 
he advanced towards the Elbe, while the Imperialists 
followed him into Lusatia. Throwing a bridge across 
the Elbe at Torgau, he gave out that he intended to 
penetrate through Meissen into the Upper Palatinate in 
Bavaria ; at Barby he also made a movement as if to pass 
that river, but continued to move down the Elbe as far 
as Havelburg, whei-e he astonished his troops by inform- 
ing them that he was leading them against the Danes in 
Holstein. 

The partiality which Christian IV. had displayed 
against the Swedes in his office of mediator, the jealousy 
which led him to do all in his power to hinder the pro- 
gress of their arms, the restraints which he laid upon their 
navigation of the Sound, and the burdens which he im- 
posed upon their commerce, had long roused the indig- 
nation of Sweden; and at last when these grievances 
increased daily had determined the Regency to measures 
of retaliation. Dangerous as it seemed to involve the 
nation in a new war, when even amidst its conquests it 
was almost exhausted by the old, the desire of revenge, 
and the deep-rooted hatred which subsisted between 
Danes and Swedes, prevailed over all other considera- 
tions ; and even the embarassnient in which hostilities 
with Germany had plunged it only served as an additional 
motive to try its fortune against Denmark. 



360 THE THIETY YEARS* WAR. 

Matters were in fact arrived at last to that extreraitji 
that the war was prosecuted merely for the purpose oi 
furnishing food and employment to the troops; that good 
winter quarters formed the chief subject of contention; 
and that success in this point was more valued than a 
decisive victory. But now the provinces of Germany 
were almost all exhausted and laid waste. They were 
wholly destitute of provisions, horses, and men, which in 
Holstein wei-e to be found in profusion. If by this 
movement Torstensohn should succeed merely in recruit- 
ing his army, providing subsistence for his horses and 
soldiers, and remounting his cavalry, all the danger and 
difficulty would be well repaid. Besides it was highly 
important on the eve of negotiations for peace to dimin- 
ish the injurious influence which Denmark might exercise 
upon these deliberations to delay the treaty itself, which 
threatened to be prejudicial to the Swedish interests, by 
sowing confusion among the parties interested, and with 
a view to the amount of indemnification to increase the 
number of her conquests in order to be the more sure of 
securing those which alone she was anxious to retain. 
Moreover the pi'esent state of Denmark justified even 
greater hopes, if only the attempts were executed with 
rapidity and silence. The secret was in fact so well kept 
in Stockholm that the Danish minister had not the slight- 
est suspicion of it ; and neither France nor Holland were 
let into the scheme. Actual hostilities commenced with 
the declaration of war ; and Torstensohn was in Holstein 
before even an attack was expected. The Swedish troops 
meeting with no resistance, quickly overran this duchy 
and made themselves masters of all its strong places ex- 
cept Rensburg and Gluckstadt. Another army penetrated 
into Schonen, which made as little opposition ; and noth- 
ing but the severity of the season prevented the enemy 
from passing the Lesser Baltic and carrying the war into 
Funen and Zealand. The Danish fleet was unsuccessful 
at Femeru ; and Christian himself, who was on board, lost 
his riglit eye by a splinter. Cut off from all communica- 
tion with tlie distant force of the Emperor, his ally, this 
king was on the point of seeing his whole kindom over- 
run by the Swedes ; and all things threatened the speedy 



THE THIRTY YEAKS' WAR. 361 

Rr?ip'?/ ,^.^ !^ ^^^ prophecy of the famous Tycho 
Brahe, that m the year 1644 Christian IV. should wander 
m the greatest misery from his dominions. 

±iut the Emperor could not look on with indifference 
while Denmark was sacrificed to Sweden, and the TaTte? 

n^£a^dfffi^^^^■r'•'" acquisition. 'l^^ot withstand' 
mg gieat difi^culties lay m the way of so long a march 
through desolated provinces, he did not hesitate to 
S'pt 'l '""^ ^"t-.Holstein under Count Gallas who' 
command of'^the'' retirement had resumed the supreme' 
command of the troops. Gallas accordingly appeared in 

.wl'^^T^*^^^ ^^^^' '-^^^ ^^P^^ by forming fZction 
ljuuJ""V' r ^'^1 ^4-^ "P th^ Swedi^sh ai-my 
rp,iv.i ^'- .^^^"V'''^ *^'^ Hessians and the Swedish 

tt Irc^bSrorR""" ^'^V"" '''''^ by Hatzfeld ancl 
me iiichbishop of Bremen, the son of Christian TV • 

anc afterwarcis the Swedes' drawn into 8^x0^^^-' 

attack upon Meissen. But Torstensohn, with his iZ 

^chleswig and Stapelholm, met Gallas, and drove him 
along the whole course of the Elbe as far as BeTbir 
whei-e the Imperialists took up an mtrenched positio?' 
Torstensohn passed the Saal, and by posting hi nse in 

Saxo'van, r!^"-^^^' 'S' "^ ^^^"' communication with 
aZT/ .\ Bphemia. Scarcity and famine began now to 

to m2i >f "" ''' f '"' r"^^'"'^ ^"^ ^^'^^^ them to retTea? 
to Magdeburg where, however, they were not much better 
off. The cavalry ^vhich endeavored to escape into Silesia 

if^w..! f^ 1? i'"" o'"'^'. ^^^^^' "" ^ai^ attempt to fight 

dP^tTn^^ °"^t^^^ ^^'"'^^'^ ^^"e«' ^^'a« almost wholly 
destro3-ed near Magdeburg. From this expedition Gallas 
brought back only a few thousand men of ^all his form d 

masterhi'the .r?' T^^"''-'^^" '' ""''^^ ^ consummate 
mastei m the art of ruining an army. The Kine of 

Denmark after this unsuccessful effort to relieve him s^ued 
for peace, which he obtained at Bremsebor in the year 
1645 under very unfavorable conditions. ^ 

Torstensohn rapidly followed up his victory; and while 
t^f. ^^.^^^"«*^^^' «"^of the generals who commanded 
under him, overawed Saxony, and Koenigsmark subdued 



362 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the wliole of Bremen, he himself penetrated into Bohemia 
with sixteen thousand men and eighty pieces of artillery, 
and endeavored a second time to remove the seat of war 
into the liereditary dominions of Austria, Ferdinand, upon 
this intelligence, hastened in j^erson to Prague, in order 
to animate the courage of the people by his presence ; and 
as a skilful general was much required, and so little 
unanimity prevailed among the numerous leaders, he 
hoped in the immediate neighborhood of the war to be 
able to give more energy and activity. In obedience to 
his orders Hatzfeld assembled the whole Austrian and 
Bavarian force, and, contrary to his own inclination and 
advice, formed the Emperor's last army and the last bul- 
wark of his states in order of battle to meet the enemy, 
who were approaching, at Jankowitz, on the 24th of P'eb- 
ruaiy, 1645. Ferdinand depended upon his cavalry, 
which outnumbered that of the enemy by three thousand, 
and upon the promise of the Virgin Mary, who had 
appeared to hira in a dream, and given him the strongest 
assurances of a complete victory. 

The superiority of the Imperialists did not intimidate 
Torstensohn, who was not accustomed to number his 
antagonists. On the very first onset the left wing, which 
Goetz, the general of the League, had entangled in a 
disadvantageous position among marshes and thickets, 
was totally routed ; the general, with the greater part of 
his men, killed, and almost the whole ammunition of the 
army taken. This unfortunate commencement decided 
the fate of the day. The Swedes constantly advancing 
successively carried all the most commanding heights. 
After a bloody engagement of eight hours, a desperate 
attack on the part of the imperial cavalry, and a vig- 
orous resistance by the S^vedish infantry, the latter re- 
mained in possession of the field. Two thousand Aus- 
trians were killed upon the spot, and Hatzfeld himself, 
with three thousand men, taken prisoners. Thus on the 
same day did the Emperor lose his best general and his 
last array. 

This decisive victory at Jankowitz at once exposed all 
the Austrian territory to the enemy. Ferdinand hastily 
fled to Vienna, to provide for its defence and to save his 



THE THIETY YEARS' WAE. 363 

family and his treasures. In a very short time the vic- 
torious Swedes i^oured like an inundation upon Moravia 
and Austria. After they had subdued nearly the whole 
of Moravia, invested Brunn, and taken all the strono-. 
holds as far as the Danube, and carried the intrenchments 
at the Wolf's bridge, near Vienna, they at last appeared 
in sight of tliat capital, while the care which they had 
taken to fortify their conquests showed that their vis.t 
was not likely to be a short one. After a long and 
destructive circuit through every province of Germany 
the stream of war had at last rolled backwards to its 
source, and the roar of the Swedish artillery now reminded 
the terrified inhabitants of those balls which, twenty- 
seven years before, the Bohemian rebels had fired mto 
Vienna. The same theatre of war brought again similar 
actors on the scene. Torstensohn invited Ragotsky, the 
successor of Bethlen Gabor, to his assistance, as the 
Bohemian rebels had solicited that of his predecessor ; 
Upper Hungary was already inundated by his troops, 
and his union with the Swedes was daily apprehended. 
The Elector of Saxony, driven to despair by the Swedes 
takmg up their quarters within his territories, and 
abandoned by the Emperor, who, after the defeat at 
Jankowitz, was unable to defend himself, at length 
adopted the last and only expedient which remained, and 
concluded a truce with Sweden, which was renewed from 
year to year till the general peace. The Emperor thus 
lost a friend, while a new enemy was appearing at his 
very gates, his armies dispersed, and his allies in other 
quarters of Germany defeated. The French army had 
effaced the disgrace of their defeat at Duttlingen by a 
brilliant campaign, and had kept the whole force of 
Bavaria employed upon the Rhine and in Swabia. Rein- 
forced with fresh troops from France, which the great 
Turenne, already distinguished by his victories in Italy, 
brought to the assistance of the Duke of Enghien, they 
appeared on the 3d of August, 1644, before Fribourg, 
which Mercy had lately taken and now covered with h?s 
whole army strongly intrenched. But against the steady 
firmness of the Bavarians all the impetuous valor of the 
French was exerted in vain, and after a fruitless sacrifice of 



364 THE THIKTY YEARS' WAR. 

six thousand men, the Duke of Enghien was compelled 
to retreat. Mazarin shed teai'S over this great loss, whicli 
Conde, who had no feeling for anything but glory, dis- 
regarded. " A single night in Paris," said he, " gives 
birth to more men than this action has destroyed." The 
Bavarians, however, were so disabled by this murderous 
battle that, far from being in a condition to relieve Aus- 
tr'a from the menaced dangers, they were too weak even 
to defend the banks of the Rhine. Sj^ires, Worms, and 
Manheim capitulated ; the strong fortress of Plulipsburg 
was forced to surrender by famine ; and by a timely sub- 
mission Mentz hastened to disarm the conquerors. 

Austria and Moravia, however, were now freed from 
Torstensohn, by a similar means of deliverance as in the 
beginning of the war had saved them from the Bohemians. 
Kagotzky, at the head of twenty-live thousand men, had 
advanced into the neighborhood of the Swedish quarters 
upon the Danube. But these wild, undisciplined hordes, 
instead of seconding the operations of Torstensohn by any 
vigorous enterprise, only ravaged tlie country, and in- 
creased the distress which, even before their arrival, had 
begun to be felt in the Swsdish camp. To extort tribute 
from the Emperor, and money and plunder from his 
subjects, was the sole object that had allured Eagotzky, 
or his predecessor, Bethlen Gabor, into tlie field ; and 
both departed as soon as they had gained their end. To 
get rid of him, Ferdinand granted the barbarian whatever 
he asked, and, by a small sacrifice, freed his states of this 
formidable enemy. 

In the meantime the main body of the Swedes had 
been greatly weakened by a tedious encampment before 
Brunn. Torstensohn, who commanded in person, for four 
entire months employed in vain all his knowledge of mili- 
tary tactics ; the obstinacy of the resistance was equal to 
that of the assault; whde despair roused the courage of 
Souches, the commandant, a Swedish deserter, who had 
no hope of pardon. The ravages caused by pestilence, 
arising from famine, want of cleanliness, and tlie use of 
unripe fruit, during their tedious and unhealthy encam];- 
ment, with the sudden retreat of the Prince of Tran- 
sylvania, at last compelled the Swedish leader to raise 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 365 

the siege. As all the passes upon the Danube were 
occupied, and his army greatly weakened by famine and 
sickness, he at last relinquished his intended plan of 
operations against Austria and Moravia, and contented 
himself with securing a key to these provinces by leaving 
behind him Swedish garrisons in the conquered fortresses. 
He then directed his march into Bohemia, whither he was 
followed by the Imperialists under the Archduke Leopold. 
Such of the lost places as had not been retaken by the 
latter were recovered after his departure by the Austrian 
General Bucheim ; so that in the course of the following 
year the Austrian frontier was again cleared of the enemy, 
and Vienna escaped with mere alarm. In Bohemia and 
Silesia, too, the Swedes maintained themselves only with 
a very variable fortune ; they traversed both countries 
without being able to hold their ground in either. But 
if the designs of Torstensohn were not crowned with all 
the success which they were promised at the commence- 
ment, they were, nevertheless, productive of the most 
important consequences to the Swedish party. Den- 
mark had been compelled to a peace, Saxony to a truce. 
The Emperor, in the deliberations for a j^eace, offered 
greater concessions ; France became more manageable ; 
and Sweden itself bolder and more confident in its bearing 
towards these two crowns. Having thus nobly performed 
his duty, the author of these advantages retired, adorned 
with laurels, into the tranquillity of private life, and 
endeavored to restore his shattered health. 

By the retreat of Torstensohn the Emperor was relieved 
from all fears of an irruption on the side of Bohemia. 
Bat a new danger soon threatened the Austrian frontier 
from Swabia and Bavaria. Turenne, who had separated 
from Conde and taken the direction of Swabia, had, in 
the year 1645, been totally defeated by Mei'cy near Mei-- 
gentheim ; and the victorious Bavarians, under their brave 
leader, poured into Hesse. But the Duke of Enghien 
hastened with considerable succors from Alsace, Koenigs- 
mark from Moravia, and the Hessians from the Rhine, to 
recruit the defeated array, and the Bavarians were in 
turn compelled to retire to the extreme limits of Swabia, 
Here they posted themselves at the village of Allersheim, 



366 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

near Nordlingen, in order to cover the Bavarian frontier. 
But no obstacle could check the impetuosity of the Duke 
of Enghien. In person he led on his troops against the 
enemy's intrenchraents, and a battle took place which 
the heroic resistance of the Bavarians rendered most 
obstinate and bloody; till at last the death of the great 
Mercy, the skill of Turenne, and the iron firmness of the 
Hessians decided the day in favor of the allies. But even 
this second barbarous sacrifice of life had little effect 
either on the course of the vs^ar or on the negotiations for 
peace. The French army, exhausted by this bloody 
engagement, was still further weakened by the departure 
of the Hessians, and the Bavarians being reinforced by 
the Archduke Leopold, Turenne was again obliged hastily 
to recross the Rhine. 

The retreat of the French enabled the enemy to turn 
his whole force upon the Swedes in Bohemia. Gustavus 
Wrangel, no unworthy successor of Banner and Torsten- 
sohn had, in 1646, been appointed commander-in-chief 
of the Swedish army, which, besides Koenigsmark's flying 
corps and the numerous garrisons dispersed throughout 
the empire, amounted to about eight thousand horse and 
fifteen thousand foot. The archduke, after reinforcing 
his army, which already amounted to twenty-four thou- 
sand men, with twelve Bavarian regiments of cavalry and 
eighteen regiments of infantry, moved against Wrangel in 
the hope of being able to overwhelm him by his superior 
force before Koenigsmark could join him, or the French 
effect a diversion in his favor. Wrangel, however, did 
not await him, but hastened through Upper Saxony to 
the Weser, where he took Hoester and Paderborn. From 
thence he marched into Hesse in order to join Turenne, 
and at his camp at Wetzlar was joined by the flying corps 
of Koenigsmark. But Turenne, fettered by the instruc- 
tions of Mazarin, who had seen with jealousy the warlike 
prowess and increasing power of the Swedes, excused 
himself on the plea of a pressing necessity to defend the 
frontier of France on the side of the Netherlands in con- 
sequence of the Flemings having failed to make the 
promised diversion. But as Wrangel continued to press 
his just demand, and a longer opposition might have 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 367 

excited distrust on the part of the Swedes, or induce them 
to conclude a private treaty with Austria, Turenne at last 
obtained the wished-for permission to join the Swedish 
army. 

The junction took place at Giessen, and they now felt 
themselves strong enough to meet the enemy. The latter 
had followed the Swedes into Hesse in order to inter- 
cept their commissariat and to prevent their union with 
Turenne. In both designs they had been xinsuccessful ; 
and the Imperialists now saw themselves cut off from the 
Maine and exposed to great scarcity and want from 
the loss of their magazines. Wrangel took advantage of 
their weakness to execute a plan by which he hoped to 
give a new turn to the war. He, too, had adopted the 
maxim of his predecessor, to carry the war into the 
Austrian States. But discouraged by the ill-success of 
Torstensohn's enterprise, he hoped to gain his end with 
more certainty by another way. He determined to fol- 
low the course of the Danube, and to break into the 
Austrian territories through the midst of Bavaria. A 
similar design had been formerly conceived by Gustavus 
Adolphus, which he had been prevented carrying into 
effect by the approach of Wallenstein's army and the 
danger of Saxony. Duke Bernard moving in his foot- 
steps, and more fortunate than Gustavus, had spread his 
victorious banners between the Iser and the Inn ; but the 
near approach of the enemy, vastly superior in force, 
obliged him to halt in his victorious career, and lead back 
his troops. Wrangel now hoped to accomplish the object 
m which his predecessors had failed, the more so as the 
Imperial and Bavarian army was far in his rear upon the 
Lahn, and could only reach Bavaria by a long march 
through Franconia and the Upper Palatinate. He moved 
hastily upon the Danube, defeated a Bavarian corps near 
Donauwerth, and passed that river, as well as the Lech, 
unopposed. But by wasting his time in the unsuccessful 
siege of Augsburg, he gave opportunity to the Imperialists 
not only to relieve that city, but also to repulse him as 
far as Lauingen. No sooner, however, had they turned 
towards Swabia with a view to "emove the war from 
Bavaria, than, seizing the jppr"-*' -tv, he repassed the 



368 THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 

Lecb, and guarded the passage of it against the Imperial- 
ists themselves. Bavaria now lay open and defenceless 
before him ; the French and Swedes quickly overran it ; 
and the soldiery indemnified themselves for all dangers 
by frightful outrages, robberies, and extortions. The 
arrival of the imperial troops, who at last succeeded in 
passing the Lech at Thierhaupten, only increased the 
misery of this country, which friend and foe indiscrimi- 
nately plundered. 

And now for the first time during the whole course of 
this war the courage of Maximilian, which for eight-and- 
twenty years had stood unshaken amidst fearful dangers, 
began to waver. Ferdinand II., his school-companion at 
Ingoldstadt, and the friend of his youth, was no more, 
and with the death of his friend and benefactor the 
strong tie was dissolved which had linked the Elector to 
the House of Austria. To the father, habit, inclination, 
and gratitude had attached him ; the son was a stranger 
to his heart, and political interests alone could preserve 
his fidelity to the latter prince. 

Accordingly the motives which the artifices of France 
now put in operation in order to detach him from the 
Austrian alliance, and to induce him to lay down his 
arms, were drawn entirely from political considerations. 
It was not without a selfish object that Mazarin had so 
far overcome his jealousy of the growing power of the 
Swedes as to allow the French to accompany them into 
Bavaria. His intention was to expose Bavaria to all the 
horrors of war, in the hope that tha persevering fortitude 
of Maximilian might be subdued by necessity and de- 
spair, and the Emperor deprived of his first and last ally. 
Brandenburg had under its great sovereign embraced the 
neutrality ; Saxony had been forced to accede to it ; the 
war with France prevented the Spaniards from taking 
any part in that of Germany; the peace with Sweden 
had removed Denmark from the theatre of war; and 
Poland had been disarmed by a long truce. If they 
could succeed in detaching the Elector of Bavaria also 
from the Austrian alliance the Emperor would be with- 
out a friend in Germany and left to the mercy of the 
allied powers. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 369 

Ferdinand III. saw his danger and left no means un- 
tried to avert it. But the Elector of Bavaria was unfor- 
tunately led to believe that the Spaniards alone were 
disinclined to peace, and that nothing but Spanish influ- 
ence had induced the Emperor so long to resist a cessa- 
tion of hostilities. Maximilian detested the Spaniards, 
and could never forgive their having opposed his applica- 
tion for the Palatine Electorate. Could it then be sup- 
posed that, in order to gratify this hated power, he 
would see his people sacrificed, his country laid waste, 
and himself ruined, when, by a cessation of hostilities, 
he could at once emancipate himself from all these dis- 
tresses, procure for his people the repose of which they 
stood so much in need, and perhaps accelerate the arrival 
of a general peace ? All doubts disappeared ; and, con- 
vinced of the necessity of this step, he thought he should 
sufficiently discharge his obligations to the Emperor if 
he invited him also to share in the benefit of the truce. 

The deputies of the three crowns, and of Bavaria, met 
at Ulra to adjust the conditions. But it was soon evi- 
dent from the instructions of the Austrian ambassadors 
that it was not the intention of the Emperor to second 
the conclusion of a truce, but if possible to prevent it. 
It was obviously necessary to make the terms acceptable 
to the Swedes, who had the advantage, and had more to 
hope than to fear from the continuance of the war. 
They were the conquerors; and yet the Emperor pre- 
sumed to dictate to them. In the first transports of 
their indignation the Swedish ambassadors were on the 
point of leaving the congress, and the French were 
obliged to have recourse to threats in order to detain 
them. 

The good intentions of the Elector of Bavaria to in- 
clude the Emperor in the benefit of the truce having 
been thus rendered unavailing, he felt himself justified 
in providing for his own safety. However hard were 
the conditions on which the truce was to be purchased, 
he did not hesitate to accept it on any terms. He agreed 
to the Swedes extending their quarters in Swabia and 
Franconia, and to his own being restricted to Bavaria 
md the Palatinate. The conquests which he had made 



370 The thirty years' war. 

in Swabia were ceded to the allies, who, on their part, 
restored to hirn what they had taken from Bavaria. 
Cologne and Hesse Cassel were also included in the 
truce. After the conclusion of this treaty, upon the 
14th March, 1647, the French and Swedes left Bavaria, 
and in order not to interfere with each other, took up 
different quarters, the former in Wurtemburg, the latter 
in Upper Swabia, in the neighborhood of the Lake of 
Constance. On the extreme north of this lake, and on 
the most southern frontier of Swabia, the Austrian town 
of Bregentz, by its steep and narrow passes, seemed to 
defy attack; and in this persuasion the whole peasantry 
of the surrounding villages had, with their property, 
taken refuge in this natural fortress. The rich booty 
which the store of jirovisions it contained gave reason to 
expect, and the advantage of possessing a pass into the 
Tyrol, Switzerland, and Italy, induced the Swedish gen- 
eral to venture an attack upon this supposed impregnable 
post and town, in which he succeeded. Meantime, 
Turenne, according to agreement, marched into Wur- 
temburg, where he forced the Landgrave of Darmstadt 
and the Elector of Mentz to imitate the example of Ba- 
varia, and to embrace the neutrality. 

And now at last France seemed to have attained the 
great object of its policy, that of depriving the Emperor 
of the support of the League and of his Protestant 
allies, and of dictating to him, sword in hand, the con- 
ditions of peace. Of all his once formidable power an 
army not exceeding twelve thousand was all that re- 
mained to him ; and tliis force he was driven to the neces- 
sity of entrusting to the command of a Calvinist, the 
Hessian deserter, Melander, as the casualties of war had 
stripped him of his best generals. But as this war had 
been remarkable for the sudden changes of fortune it 
displayed, and as every calculation of state policy had 
been frequently baffled by some unforeseen event, in this 
case also the issue disappointed expectation ; and after a 
brief crisis the fallen power of Austria rose again to a for- 
midable strength. The jealousy which France entertfiined 
of Sweden prevented it from permitting the totnl ruin of 
tlie Emperor, or allowing the Swedes to obtain such a 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAE. B71 

preponderance in Germany as might have been destruc- 
tive to France herself. Accordingly the French minister 
declined to take advantage of the distresses of Austria ; 
and the army of Turenne, separating from that of 
Wrangel, retired to the frontier of the Netherlands. 
Wrangel, indeed, after moving from Swabia into Fran- 
conia, taking Schweinfurt, and incorporating the imperial 
garrison of that place with his own army, attempted to 
make his way into Bohemia, and laid siege to Egra, the 
key of that kingdom. To relieve this fortress the 
Emjaeror put his last army into motion, and placed him- 
self at his head. But obliged to take a long circuit, in 
order to spare the lands of Von Schlick, the president of 
the council of war, he protracted his march ; and on his 
arrival Egra was already taken. Both armies were now 
in sight of each other, and a decisive battle was moment- 
arily expected, as both were suffering from want, and 
the two camps were only separated from each other by 
the space of the intrenchments. But the Impei'ialists, 
although superior in numbers, contented themselves with 
keeping close to the enemy, and harassing them by 
skirmishes, by fatiguing marches and famine, until the 
negotiations which had been opened with Bavaria were 
brought to a bearing. 

The neutrality of Bavaria was a wound under which 
the imperial court writhed impatiently, and after in vain 
attempting to prevent it, Austria now determined, if 
possible, to turn it to advantage. Several officers of the 
Bavarian army had been offended by this step of their 
master, which at once reduced them to inaction, and 
imposed a burdensome restraint on their restless disposi- 
tions. Even the brave John de Werth was at the head of 
the .malcontents, and, encouraged by the Emperor, he 
formed a plot to seduce the whole army from their alle- 
giance to the Elector and lead it over to the Emperor. 
Ferdinand did not blush to patronize this act of treachery 
against his father's most trusty ally. He formally issued 
a proclamation to the Bavarian troops, in which he 
recalled them to himself, reminded them that they were 
the troops of the Empire, which the Elector had merely 
commanded in name of the Emperor. Fortunately for 



372 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Maximilian he detected the conspiracy time enough to 
anticif)ate and prevent it by the most rapid and effective 
measures. 

Tliis disgraceful conduct of the Emperor might have 
justified a reprisal, but Maximilian was too old a states- 
man to listen to the voice of passion where policy alone 
ought to be heard. He had not derived from the tructe 
the advantages he expected. Far from tending to accele- 
rate a general peace, it had a pernicious influence upon 
the negotiations at Miinster and Osnaburg, and had made 
the allies bolder in their demands. The French and 
Swedes had indeed removed from Bavaria; but by the 
loss of his quarters in the Swabian circle he found himself 
compelled either to exhaust his own territories by the 
subsistence of his troops, or at once to disband them and 
throw aside the shield and spear at the very moment 
when the sword alone seemed to be the arbiter of right. 
Before embracing either of these certain evils he deter- 
mined to try a third step, the unfavorable issue of which 
was, at least, not so uncertain, viz., to renounce the truce 
and resume the war. 

This resolution, and the assistance which he imme- 
diately dispatched to the Emperor in Bohemia, threat- 
ened materially to injure the Swedes, and Wrangel was 
compelled in haste to evacuate that kingdom. He retired 
through Thuringia into Westphalia and Lunenburg, in 
the hope of forming a junction with the French army 
under Turenne, while the Imperial and Bavarian army 
followed him to the Weser, under Melander and Gronsfeld. 
His ruin was inevitable if the enemy should overtake him 
before his junction with Turenne; but the same con- 
sideration which had just saved the Emperor now 
proved the salvation of the Swedes. Even amidst all 
the fury of the conquest cold calculations of prudence 
guided the course of the war, and the vigilance of the 
different courts increased as the prospect of peace ap- 
proached. The Elector of Bavaria could not allow the 
Emperor to obtain so decisive a preponderance as by the 
sudden alteration of affairs miglit delay the chances of a 
general peace. Every change of fortune was important 
now, when a pacification was so ardently desired by all, and 



THE THIRTY YEAES' WAR. 373 

when the disturbance of the balance of power among the 
contracting parties might at once annihilate the work of 
years, destroy the fruit of long and tedious negotiations, 
and indefinitely protract the repose of Europe. If France 
sought to restrain the Swedish crown within due bounds, 
and measured out her assistance according to her suc- 
cesses and defeats, the Elector of Bavaria silently under- 
took the same task with the Emperor, his ally, and deter- 
mined by prudently dealing out his aid to hold the fate 
of Austria in his own hands. And now that the power 
of the Emperor threatened once more to attain a dan- 
gerous superiority, Maximilian at once ceased to pur- 
sue the Swedes. He was also afraid of reprisals from 
France, who had threatened to direct Turenne's whole 
force against him if he allowed his troops to cross the 
Weser. 

Melander, prevented by the Bavarians from further 
pursuing Wrangel, crossed by Jena and Erfurt into 
Hesse, and now appeared as a dangerous enemy in the 
country which he had formerly defended. If it was the 
desire of revenge upon his former sovereign which led 
him to choose Hesse for the scene of his ravage, he cer- 
tainly had his full gratification. Under this scourge the 
miseries of that unfortunate state reached their height. 
But he had soon reason to regret that in the choice of his 
quarters he had listened to the dictates of revenge rather 
than of prudence. In this exhausted country his army 
was oppressed by want, while Wrangel was recruiting 
his strength and remounting his cavalry in Lunenburg. 
Too weak to maintain his wretched quarters against the 
Swedish general, when he opened the campaign in the 
winter of 1648, and marched against Hesse, he was 
obliged to retire with disgrace, and take refuge on the 
banks of the Danube. 

France had once more disappointed the expectations of 
Sweden ; and the army of Turenne, disregarding the re- 
monstrances of Wrangel, had remained upon the Rhine. 
The Swedish leader revenged himself by drawing into 
his service the cavalry of Weimar, which had abandoned 
the standard of France, though by this step he further 
increased the jealousy of that power. Turenne received 



3T4 THE THIKTY YEARS* WAR. 

permission to join the Swedes ; and the last campaign of 
this eventful war was now opened by the united armies. 
Driving Melander before them along the Danube, they 
threw supplies into Egra, which was besieged by the Tm. 
perialists, and defeated the Imperial and Bavarian armie* 
on the Danube, which ventured to oppose them at Sus^ 
marshausen, where Melander was mortally wounded. 
After this overthrow, the Bavarian general, Gronsfeld, 
placed himself on the farther side of the Lech, in order 
to guard Bavaria from the enemy. 

But Gronsfeld was not more fortunate than Tilly, who 
in this same position had sacrificed his life for Bavaria. 
Wrangel and Turenne chose the same spot for passing the 
river which was so gloriously marked by the victory of 
Gustavus Adolphus, and accomplished it by the same 
means, too, which had favored their predecessor. Bavaria 
was now a second time overrun, and the breach of the 
truce punished by the severest treatment of its inhabitants. 
Maximilian sought shelter in Salzburg, while the Swedes 
crossed the Iser, and forced their way as far as the Inn. 
A violent and continued rain, which in a few days swelled 
this inconsiderable stream into a broad river, saved 
Austria once more from the threatened danger. The 
enemy ten times attempted to form a bridge of boats 
over the Inn, and as often it was destroyed by the current. 
Never, during the whole course of the war, had the Im- 
perialists been in so great consternation as at present, 
when the enemy were in the centre of Bavaria, and when 
they had no longer a general left who could be matched 
against a Turenne, a Wrangel, and a Koenigsmark. At 
last the brave Piccolomini arrived from the Netherlands 
to assume the command of the feeble wreck of the Im- 
perialists. By their own ravages in Bohemia the allies 
had rendered their subsistence in that country impracti- 
cable, and were at last driven by scarcity to retreat into 
the Upper Palatinate, where the news of the peace put a 
period to their activity. 

Koenigsmark, with his flying corps, advanced towards 
Bohemia, where Ernest Odowalsky, a disbanded captain, 
who, after being disabled in tlie imjierial service, had been 
dismissed without a pension, laid before him a plan for 



l^SE THIRTY years' WAR. B75 

surprising the lesser side of the city of Prague. Koeiiigs« 
mark successfully accomplished the bold enterprise, and 
acquired the reputation of closing the thirty years' war 
by the last brilliant achievement. This decisive stroke, 
which vanquished the Emperor's irresolution, cost the 
Swedes only the loss of a single man. But the old town, 
the larger half of Prague, which is divided into two parts 
by the Moldau, by its vigorous resistance wearied out the 
efforts^ of the Palatine, Charles Gustavus, the successor 
of Christina on the throne, who had arrived from Sweden 
with fresh troops, and had assembled the whole Swedish 
force in Bohemia and Silesia before its walls. The 
approach of winter at last drove the besiegers into their 
quarters, and in the meantime, the intelligence arrived 
that a peace had been signed at Mtinster, on the 24th 
October. 

The colossal labor of concluding this solemn, and ever- 
memorable and sacred treaty, which is known by the 
name of the peace of Westphalia ; the endless obstacles 
which were to be surmounted ; the contending interests 
which it was necessary to reconcile ; the concatenation of 
circumstances which must have co-operated to bring to a 
favorable termination this tedious, but precious and per- 
manent work of policy ; the difficulties which beset the 
very opening of the negotiations, and maintaining them, 
when opened, during the ever-fluctuating vicissitudes of 
the war; finally, arranging the conditions of peace, and, 
still more, the carrying them into effect ; — what were the 
conditions of this peace ; what each contending power 
gained or lost, by the toils and sufferings of a thirty years' 
war ; what modification it Avrought upon the general 
system of European policy; — these are matters which 
must be relinquished to another pen. The history of the 
peace of Westphalia constitutes a whole, as important as 
the history of the war itself. A mere abridgment of it 
would reduce to a mere skeleton one of the most inter- 
esting and characteristic monuments of human policy and 
passions, and deprive it of every feature calculated to fix 
the attention of the public, for which I write, and of 
which I now respectfully take my leave. 



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Bar naby Budge. By Chas. Dickens. 

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Cradock Nowell. By R. D. Black- 
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California and Oregon Trallo By Daniel Deronda. By George Eliot. 

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